about-us

We started this business in 1993 after a very frustrating time trying to both buy a home and sell our condo FSBO through the newspaper classified ads.  We had been using an agent to help us find a house, and grew tired of being shown houses that just weren’t for us.  At that time, the agents' local MLS was the size of a NYC telephone book, with only one black & white exterior photo for each listed property.  Not a very effective way to pre-screen properties, to say the least!  As buyers, we wanted to see color photos of the interior and exterior, and we also believed that if we could advertise our condo with color interior pictures, it would sell right away. 

Our own plight made us appreciate that there must be a better, more effective way to buy and sell real estate than the MLS system at the time.  We also realized that FSBO sellers needed their own advertising medium to reach buyers, preferably one that enabled color photos.  In a sense, you could say we started this business to accomplish that goal!

We realized early on that the biggest myth in real estate is that an agent is necessary to both buy and sell a home.  We are not real estate agents. We are publishers; we started with a full color magazine and then added the internet (after it was invented, in 1996!).  By then, the popularity of our publication had spread to cover all of Vermont, and the Upper Valley of NH as well.

Our 'mission' is to empower the private homeseller with the knowledge, resources and confidence to successfully sell their own real estate and avoid expensive real estate commissions.  To this end, we have held local professional seminars with attorneys, lenders, home inspectors, appraisers and home stagers as speakers to educate ourselves and sellers over the years.  In 1994, we co-produced a video "How to Sell Your Own Home" that was such a novelty at the time, it was featured on CNBC, CNN and numerous radio shows.  Bill wrote a book by the same title a couple of years later, last updated in 2020.  Over the years, we have used our magazine Picket Fence Preview, and this website to update readers on matters related to real estate and particularly, matters affecting private sale transactions. In 2018 we retired the magazine and are now entirely web-based.

Picket Fence Preview has since helped tens of thousands of homeowners sell real estate by owner, each saving a ton of money and avoiding unnecessary frustration. 

Thank you for your support of Picket Fence Preview.

Bill & Toni Supple, Picket Fence Preview

Picket Fence Preview helps homeowners sell real estate on their own without being alone with comprehensive marketing, information, documents and support material. For sale by owner homes, condos, townhouses, land, commercial, investment and rental property.