Is there any benefit to using an agent with a new home builder?

Lombardo or McBride for example.

Yes, the buyers agent commission is already built into their sales price.  The agent at the demo house gets that commission if they sell to you, or your agent does if they take you through and negotiate the deal.  Just like buying a car, lots of options.  Better to have your own representation.  And for the GD crowd that will say do it yourself and take the commission off the purchase price, it doesn't work like, especially when doing business with a big homebuilder.

delorean ...

I know you because I bought a hand gun from you.  I was impressed.  

Sorry for the thread hyjack but

In this market, and technology in place....

Does it make sense to sell as FSBO?

Hey buddy.....been a long time!!  Probably 7 yrs right?

FSBO:  Yes and no.  Kind of depends on a couple factors.  If it's easy to sell, you have a way to market it, no potential issues foreseeable (at least on your side), and you've got someone lined up to do the paperwork then I'd say go ahead and give it a try.  I've done a couple for friends where I just did the paperwork -- they came to me with the deal worked out already.  But those were between friends or family that didn't care about top dollar.  Just like you, when we're actually representing someone we have a fiduciary duty to save them money or maximize profit.

The flip side on "saving money" through FSBO is that if the buyer comes in with an agent, then you're on the hook for 2.7%.  And that agent is NOT going to do your side of the paperwork for you (and in most cases not want to deal with the seller directly.)  Amongst licensees, FSBO is commonly called "FSBI" (as in "For Sale By Idiot").  FSBO sellers have the reputation of being cheap, uneducated in real estate, and hard to deal with.  So most agents will avoid a FSBO deal like the plague just because it's twice the work for half the commission *if* it works out.  Obliviously this isn't always the case, you'd be an easy guy to work with, but you have to overcome that stigma.  It's also a liability nightmare for an agent to deal directly with an unrepresented buyer or seller.  If you're on the hook for 2.7%, what's another 3.3% to have someone handle the sell side?

Years ago the state came up with the "transaction broker".  These are the places that will put your house on the MLS for a couple hundred bucks.  They absolutely CANNOT give you advice, nor represent you under the listing contract in place....they're just putting it on the MLS, then handing the paperwork back and forth.  This will drive the other agent nuts or be a nightmare for a buyer that has no idea either how to do stuff.  What ends up happening is the buyer and seller end up hiring that transaction broker to be a dual agency, representing both sides to get the deal done.  It's not the full 6%, but it's almost there and you should have just opted for a full deal in the beginning.  These place have kinda gone by the wayside just like the old Assist-a-sells discount brokerage.

Any *good* agent is going to pay for themselves by getting a higher sale price and/or making it worry free for you.  There is so much crap that can go wrong in these deals, and that what *good* Realtors handle and fix.  Seriously, not many deals would get done if it wasn't for good agents holding them together.  Every deal I've had in the last year has nearly fallen apart over appraisal issues, title work, inspections/repairs, etc.  The buyer and seller get emotional about it, and would have walked away over the scuffles, but the other agent and I kept it together and got the house sold so both sides were happy in the end.  It's like divorce mediation.....it *can* work if both sides really want it to, but more times than not, it ends up in the hands of lawyers because of a factor no one ever considers.......butthurt.  Butthurt and the statement "it's the principle" kill more RE deals that you would imagine.  Gotta drop any sentimental value of the HOUSE (don't think of it as YOUR HOME anymore).  Sentimental value = zero value to a buyer.

On the marketing angle, the MLS is the place to be, no way around it.  You can do Zillow, Facebook marketplace, etc, but it's a captive, and sometimes local audience only.  Plus unless you're paying to market, you're at the bottom of the list.  Our franchises spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to make sure we show up first.  Besides buyer's agents are not going to bother looking on non-MLS sites.....only agents trying to get you to hire them look there convert the FSBO'ers.  You'll get spammed constantly, and someone will attempt to con you into a BS deal......there's a whole new market for that.

My best advice would be get your license and do the sale the legit way, but if you have no long term interest in real estate investing and such, then it's probably not a time/money saver.  Do it like everything else in life, interview a few contenders, look at all the options, and go from there.  Don't believe the highest sales price presentation either.  I can't tell you how many listings I've lost because I've said I can sell it for X, and then another agent says I can sell it for X+10%.  90 days later it sells for X, and "I told you so", but I lost.  Gotta have numbers have to back it up--you're a numbers man, you get it.  

Sorry I don't have a better clear cut answer for you, but that's the deal on FSBO (or "FSBI" as the case may be).....at least as I see it around STL.  In the end, most of the time buying/selling a home is the largest monetary transaction a person will do in their lifetime, so spending some of that profit to make sure it's maximized, and the liability is minimized, isn't a bad investment.  Same reason we should have all of our retirement strategically invested with a CFP vs. gambling with it on E-trade, right????

Thanks @delorean

For the thoughtful and through reply.  

I had a buddy sell his house, listed it on Zillow and seemed to think that put him on a few  other listing services automatically.  The buyer had a buyer's agent and he said he paid them 1% and they did all the paperwork.  My buddy said it couldn't have gone easier.  He attributes it the hot market and dearth of inventory.  He did have an impeccable 2 story colonial in Chesterfield.  

I recently had my place appraised for HEL and the appraiser said he couldn't really find any comps [I own a villa in a gated community in Chesterfield].  

I've bought and sold a number of homes in the last 40 years [I just bought one in Dardenne Prarie] and what you describe has always been my experience except for my last purchase.  a few months ago I had to go to escalation with an all cash deal to be successful.