When I saw this article in the Wall Street Journal, I had to laugh at the irony.  I'm sure that many other hard working real estate agents in the world also had a good chuckle. 

"Colby Sambrotto, a founder and former chief operating officer of ForSalebyOwner.com, a large website for owner sales, spent six months trying to sell his condominium himself through online listings and classified ads, before turning over the listing of the 2,000-square-foot apartment to a broker at Bond New York in November."

During this downturn in the economy and the real estate market, many people that may have opted to sell on their own in the past, are now requesting the help of a Realtor.

“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.”

Lesson to learn here is that just being on the internet alone does not guarantee a successful sale. Clearly, the internet has revolutionized how many home buyers first start searching for a new home, but ultimately buying a house is a lot different than buying some books on amazon or a used sweater on ebay. In a buyer's market, selling a home can definitely be more of a challenge. Even in Dane County, the odds of selling a home in 2010 were only 47.9% (according to south central Wisconsin multiple listing database). Thus, having a top agent that can understand how to best position your home makes good sense in today's real estate market.