I have done both (I have also purchased with a realtor), all in rural Oregon. I did a FSBO in a tiny town and the property was purchased directly by a buyer th

I have done both (I have also purchased with a realtor), all in rural Oregon. I did a FSBO in a tiny town and the property was purchased directly by a buyer that was also without a realtor, but both sides had a mortgage from a national bank, and inspections happened, there was a boilerplate contract (the same one the previous realtor used for us buying the house, the lawyer’s name was on the contract) and a title company. The transaction was on rails. Could not have been smoother or cheaper. For that place we knew the local market was small and the rumor mill active and figured we could FSBO for a bit before we contacted a real estate agent if we needed access to the MLS and non local buyers. As for the time we purchased without an agent, we purchased a few 100 acre ranch from our family and did so with a real estate contract, seller financing and no mortgage. It would have been difficult to get financing at a reasonable rate for a property of this kind. This involved a fair bit of time dealing with lawyers and neither party is happy with the lawyers but the deal got done. Anyhow - both experiences were good.