When homeowners decide to sell their home without a real estate agent,  they enter the world of the FSBO sellers. If a seller markets a home as a FSBO, and a buyer who is not working with an agent wants to buy this home, the seller pays no commission because no real-estate agents are involved. If a buyer who is represented by an agent is interested in a FSBO home, that buyer's agent may request the owner to pay him or her a commission or finder's fee for bringing the buyer.

In many states, brokers have appropriate pre-printed forms in place for agents to pre-negotiate a "one time showing" with a negotiated commission rate. This ensures that agents can represent their clients' best interests and consider all available homes in the decision-making process.

In order to protect themselves, sellers typically arrange to have the necessary forms at hand or have them drawn up for them. Lawyers will normally draw up an agreement for a fixed fee often as part of legal representation for the purchaser. Office supply stores carry legal kits that can also be used. While these kits are relatively inexpensive, a poorly constructed purchase document could result in a transaction falling through or even in litigation.

More and more owners selling their own property are using online marketing companies to advertise their properties. FSBO web sites are now a real part of the real estate market, as the Internet becomes vital in the home-selling process.

According to a NY Times article from December 2007, "Nationally...real estate companies are spending 26 percent more on online advertising this year, even as total real estate ad spending declined 3 percent, according to Borrell Associates, a research company."

Since 1999, just when the internet boom was just starting, Flat List RE has been helping buyers and sellers of real estate save thousands of dollars in real estate commissions. Establishing itself as the original for sale by owner company, Flat Fee MLS company, Flat List RE grew and expanded its expertise to the Internet, becoming one of the first “Flat Fee MLS” companies to provide the flat fee services and a web site focused on the concept. As the Internet market expanded, so did Flat List RE by offering the flat fee MLS throughout the US.

National Association of Realtors (NAR) also reports that the flat-fee MLS has grown to 10% of transactions, and flat-fee MLS sellers are in substance FSBO sellers. Unlike traditional real estate agent clients, flat-fee sellers are not committed to paying a commission and still advertise their homes by owner. Therefore, the true size of the FSBO market is closer to 22%; the sum of the "pure" FSBO sellers (12%) and the quasi-FSBO sellers.