According to an recent USA Today, a 40 acre Hamptons, NY ocean view property has been sold "For Sale by Owner", saving the owners well over 5 million in real estate commissions*.The buyer of the property was Mr. Ron Baron of the Baron Funds investments and the seller was Adelaide de Menil, heiress to the Schlumberger oil fortune.Of course, this is not your typical home buyer & seller but it does show that "for sale by owner" sales happen in every price range, every day. Last year, the NAR reported in its 2006 Home buyers & Home sellers Survey that 12% of all homes sold last year were "FSBO" while another 8% were sold as FSBO with an MLS-only (often called "flat-fee mls only" posting). These "for sale by owner" transactions represents over 20% of all 6.478 million** homes or about 1.29 million homes with a median price of $221K*** for a estimated total equity savings of $17,105,540,000,000!Real estate commissions are based on the sales price of a home but what most home sellers don't look at is the actual cost of the real estate commission based on their homes actual equity. Since many homeowners have purchased or recently cashed-out refinanced their homes to high loan to values, they will often see that more of their equity is spent on real estate agent commissions then they will earn from actually owning and selling their home!Here is a real estate commission calculator that can help determine your net cost of selling a home with a real estate agent or if you should be selling FSBO. 
