There are people who are successful at selling their own homes. If you are one of these lucky folks, congratulations! However, there are others who try to sell their own home for awhile and then change their minds. Perhaps they don't have the time to devote to it, or perhaps they just want someone else to handle all the inquiries. If you do decide to list with an agent after being an FSBO, you will recover some free time that had been lost in trying to sell your house yourself.

Be sure to get in touch with every buyer who expressed interest in your property. Let them know you are considering listing with an agent and ask them if they are ready to make a decision to buy now. Sometimes the sense of urgency is enough to get these potential buyers to make a move. If they are not quite ready but could be ready in a few weeks or a month, you can ask to have these buyers excluded from the listing for a period of time. This means that if one of the excluded buyers purchases your home that you handle the transaction yourself and don't pay any commission.