There is a long standing argument that by selling your home For Sale By Owner (FSBO), you can get out of paying real estate commissions and save yourself some money. So when Colby Sambrotto, the founder and former COO of forsalebyowner.com decided to sell his home you would expect this to be a slam dunk. Well maybe not.

A recent article in the Wall Street Journal reported that after trying to sell his New York condo for six months, he decided enough was enough and employed the help of a Real Estate Broker.

Here is a quote from the WSJ:

“Looking to move his family to the suburbs, [Mr. Sambrotto] said he carefully staged his apartment for sale himself, and put it on the market. But after using a mix of websites to publicize his apartment, he said he had only ‘middling success’ and switched to a broker because many buyers were so reliant on brokers.”

But here is the real killer, not only did the Broker sell his home, he sold it for $150,000 more than Mr Sambrotto was asking for it when trying to sell it FSBO.

So what’s the moral of this story? Trying to save money may not always save you money and you should probably rely on the services of a professional. After all it could save you money.