Are 'For Sale By Owner' Homes Cheaper?
Real estate editor Maryann Haggerty and columnist Elizabeth Razzi expand on a question submitted in a recent online chat.
Q: When I was home shopping back in the hot market days, my agent took me to for-sale-by-owners who cooperated -- that is, gave the 3 percent fee to the buyer's agent. She had many examples where FSBOs greatly underpriced their homes, which led to a great savings on the buyer's part, but only a small difference in the commission.
A: Maryann Haggerty: Ah, the questions about how real estate agents and sellers who don't use agents interact. Do agents shun FSBOs? Do FSBOs overprice their houses? Or do they underprice them, as your agent seemed to believe? And what does all of this mean for would-be home buyers?
Elizabeth Razzi: I wonder if the appraised values of those homes reflected such below-market prices. And were you able to scoop up an underpriced deal at the height of the hot market? Sure seems like it would be a pity if you passed it up.
In the go-go market of several years ago, bidding wars tended to break out even on properties priced at what was thought to be the market value. It's reasonable to expect an underpriced FSBO would draw multiple bids as well. Even with the market as slow as it is now, I've had real estate agents tell me that it's "impossible" to underprice a home, because if it is underpriced it will draw multiple offers. I'm not sure I buy that argument, but it sure makes the theory that FSBOs routinely underprice homes more interesting.
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Showing posts with label FSBO news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FSBO news. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Buying into FSBO movement
Buying into FSBO movement
No-commission sale appeals to Arizonans
Susie Steckner
Special for The Republic
Jun. 2, 2007 12:00 AM
In any given month, Mesa businessman Jamison Manwaring is juggling 100 or so clients who are selling very different homes with one goal: making a sale without using a real estate agent.
Instead of paying commission, they hand over a few hundred dollars to his For Sale By Owner affiliate for some professional guidance, an Internet listing and a yard sign. Last year, about 250 homeowners decided to go it alone with the company's help.
They're not the only ones striking out on their own. advertisement
In the past decade, homeowners across the country have joined the FSBO - for sale by owner - movement. Lured by the idea of cutting out commissions, they are largely relying on the Internet, plus tried-and-true For Sale signs and word-of-mouth advertising, to market and sell their homes.
The FSBO phenomenon has spawned numerous Web sites to connect buyers and sellers, such as Manwaring's www.byowneraz.com, how-to books, and guides such as Selling Your Home Without an Agent, an online tip sheet from the popular Dummies series of reference books.
The prospect of selling a home without a typical 6 percent commission is especially appealing in Arizona and elsewhere where the housing market has cooled.
"In markets like this, you tend to see more for sale by owners. They're cutting the sales price as close as they can, so they want to cut out the commission," said Jay Butler, director of realty studies at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa.
If selling a home on your own seems a daunting task, it can be. The thought of pricing a home, getting the property ready for sale, picking out the serious buyers, negotiating a deal and completing the paperwork are enough to send some homeowners into the arms of a real estate agent, commission and all.
Butler said that a good, experienced agent can be well worth the commission.
Just screening potential buyers is a major challenge, Butler said. "This is the best thing a good agent brings to the game. Is this a meaningful buyer or a looky-see?"
Handling the paperwork - from inspection and disclosure forms to a purchase contract - is another hurdle.
Richard Keyt, a business, real estate and estate-planning lawyer with Keyt Law LLC in Phoenix, offers a range of document preparation services for people who sell their own homes. He charges a flat fee depending on a client's needs and also notes that sellers can buy documents themselves through the Arizona Association of Realtors.
Keyt said it is crucial that sellers have documents, such as purchase contracts, that are relevant to Arizona and not something found online and adapted for a sale locally.
"It could have some fatal flaws in it," he said.
FSBO experts say successful sellers must do their homework, commit to the time-consuming home-sale process and hire reliable professionals. And they have to learn to do without the hand-holding that agents traditionally offer through, say, a bad inspection or tense negotiation.
Among the things FSBO hopefuls should consider:
• Interview several real estate agents. This could bolster your decision to do the work yourself or convince you to go with an agent, and also may provide information and tips that can help with your sale, according to dummies.com.
• Put the right price on the home. Check what comparable homes have sold for in your area. Homes sales often are published in newspapers, and some real estate Web sites, such as www.for salebyowner.com, can help sellers find comparables for a fee.
• Market the home. Use a combination of methods to advertise and sell, including the Internet, classified newspaper ads, yard signs and flier boxes. Some FSBO companies offer listings on their Web sites and, for an additional fee, a listing on the traditional Multiple Listing Service used by real estate agents.
• Be available. Once your home goes on the market, be ready to take phone calls, show the home when potential buyers want to see it and hold open houses, if necessary. Though there may be inconveniences to this, sellers also can take advantage of personally showing off upgrades and other special features of the home.
• Stay in the game. Don't take the home off the market with an offer alone. Make sure that a buyer will qualify for a mortgage, and beware of buyers who want to make your sale contingent on the sale of their own home, according to Dummies.com.
• Hire professionals. Use a title company, real estate lawyer and other professionals to help with the necessary paperwork.
• Get some help. Consider using companies such as Help U Sell or Manwaring's For Sale By Owner affiliate, which charge a fee to provide some services, such as preparing documents.
No-commission sale appeals to Arizonans
Susie Steckner
Special for The Republic
Jun. 2, 2007 12:00 AM
In any given month, Mesa businessman Jamison Manwaring is juggling 100 or so clients who are selling very different homes with one goal: making a sale without using a real estate agent.
Instead of paying commission, they hand over a few hundred dollars to his For Sale By Owner affiliate for some professional guidance, an Internet listing and a yard sign. Last year, about 250 homeowners decided to go it alone with the company's help.
They're not the only ones striking out on their own. advertisement
In the past decade, homeowners across the country have joined the FSBO - for sale by owner - movement. Lured by the idea of cutting out commissions, they are largely relying on the Internet, plus tried-and-true For Sale signs and word-of-mouth advertising, to market and sell their homes.
The FSBO phenomenon has spawned numerous Web sites to connect buyers and sellers, such as Manwaring's www.byowneraz.com, how-to books, and guides such as Selling Your Home Without an Agent, an online tip sheet from the popular Dummies series of reference books.
The prospect of selling a home without a typical 6 percent commission is especially appealing in Arizona and elsewhere where the housing market has cooled.
"In markets like this, you tend to see more for sale by owners. They're cutting the sales price as close as they can, so they want to cut out the commission," said Jay Butler, director of realty studies at Arizona State University's Polytechnic campus in Mesa.
If selling a home on your own seems a daunting task, it can be. The thought of pricing a home, getting the property ready for sale, picking out the serious buyers, negotiating a deal and completing the paperwork are enough to send some homeowners into the arms of a real estate agent, commission and all.
Butler said that a good, experienced agent can be well worth the commission.
Just screening potential buyers is a major challenge, Butler said. "This is the best thing a good agent brings to the game. Is this a meaningful buyer or a looky-see?"
Handling the paperwork - from inspection and disclosure forms to a purchase contract - is another hurdle.
Richard Keyt, a business, real estate and estate-planning lawyer with Keyt Law LLC in Phoenix, offers a range of document preparation services for people who sell their own homes. He charges a flat fee depending on a client's needs and also notes that sellers can buy documents themselves through the Arizona Association of Realtors.
Keyt said it is crucial that sellers have documents, such as purchase contracts, that are relevant to Arizona and not something found online and adapted for a sale locally.
"It could have some fatal flaws in it," he said.
FSBO experts say successful sellers must do their homework, commit to the time-consuming home-sale process and hire reliable professionals. And they have to learn to do without the hand-holding that agents traditionally offer through, say, a bad inspection or tense negotiation.
Among the things FSBO hopefuls should consider:
• Interview several real estate agents. This could bolster your decision to do the work yourself or convince you to go with an agent, and also may provide information and tips that can help with your sale, according to dummies.com.
• Put the right price on the home. Check what comparable homes have sold for in your area. Homes sales often are published in newspapers, and some real estate Web sites, such as www.for salebyowner.com, can help sellers find comparables for a fee.
• Market the home. Use a combination of methods to advertise and sell, including the Internet, classified newspaper ads, yard signs and flier boxes. Some FSBO companies offer listings on their Web sites and, for an additional fee, a listing on the traditional Multiple Listing Service used by real estate agents.
• Be available. Once your home goes on the market, be ready to take phone calls, show the home when potential buyers want to see it and hold open houses, if necessary. Though there may be inconveniences to this, sellers also can take advantage of personally showing off upgrades and other special features of the home.
• Stay in the game. Don't take the home off the market with an offer alone. Make sure that a buyer will qualify for a mortgage, and beware of buyers who want to make your sale contingent on the sale of their own home, according to Dummies.com.
• Hire professionals. Use a title company, real estate lawyer and other professionals to help with the necessary paperwork.
• Get some help. Consider using companies such as Help U Sell or Manwaring's For Sale By Owner affiliate, which charge a fee to provide some services, such as preparing documents.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007
Incredible Shrinking Houses Lure Home Buyers
Incredible Shrinking Houses Lure Home Buyers
More Americans are shunning McMansions for smaller, traditional homes.
By Clayton Collins
The Christian Science Monitor
EUREKA SPRINGS, ARK. -- Melissa Greene once lived in a big Victorian, the sort of place with sacrosanct parlors used mainly to display stiff-backed chairs. For the past five years she has lived more contentedly, she says, in a modest 1,100-square-foot home.
She and her husband, Joe, own even smaller houses that they rent to tourists in this arts-rich Ozarks town. This spring, the couple is moving full-time into one of those itty-bitty abodes, a restored 1880s worker's cottage less than half the size of a tennis court. Joe hammered away at a back deck on a recent afternoon.
More on thinking
(really) small
Several books, including "Where Men Hide" (by James B. Twitchell and Ken Ross) and "A Place of My Own" (by Michael Pollan), explore small buildings of the clubhouse variety. More broadly, these websites are maintained by major small-house (even treehouse) builders and advocacy groups:
* The Small House Society, dedicated to the promotion of smaller housing alternatives.
* Romero Studios, a design collaborative that builds "sculptural" tree houses.
* Ross Chapin is a firm specializing in scaled, custom residential design and neighborhood development.
* Tinyhouses.net offers an aggregation of small-house images from around the US.
* The Tiny House Company is a Virginia-based builder of small homes.
* Tumbleweedhouses.com is the homepage of Jay Shafer, a designer specializing in sustainable architecture and urban planning.
"I've always liked them," Ms. Greene says of use-it-all living spaces with dollhouse dimensions that send realtors scrambling for optimistic adjectives. "I even lived in 650 square feet of a bed and breakfast that I had," she says, "though it took a year to learn how."
The Greenes embody a nascent small-house renaissance that has crept from renovations into new construction.
Even in this era of foreclosures and wallet- draining utility bills, plenty of suburban subdivisions still sprout 4,000-sq.-ft. McMansions. But between 2005 - when the average floor area in a new home hit a peak of 2,434 sq. ft. - and 2006, US architects reported less demand for increases in the square footage and volume of homes, says Scott Frank, a spokesman for the American Institute of Architects. He cites "a reversal of the decades of expanding home sizes."
Some of that can be attributed to empty-nest demographics, to property-tax hikes, and to new pockets of communitarian thinking. Some of it is simply style.
" 'Cottage' is the biggest word in decorating right now," says Greene. And if many smaller homes take on the proportions advocated most prominently by Sarah Susanka, author of "The Not So Big House" - think half a McMansion or less - some now borrow from the blueprints of the truly tiny.
Next month, building-supplies giant Lowe's aims to go national with plans and kits for the frame-built "Katrina cottage" developed by Marianne Cusato in the wake of that hurricane as an alternative to government-issue trailers. Options range from 550 to 940 square feet.
"What we've noticed is that as we're building a few down there, the number of phone calls to [our] stores increases threefold," says Jennifer Wilson, a Lowe's spokeswoman. Lowe's declines to release numbers, but Ms. Wilson says requests for $2 plan books have come from every state and "probably almost every continent but Antarctica."
Ms. Cusato, too, was surprised that her design would provoke such interest. "A lot of people instantly came to us and said, 'Wow, it's perfect. I've got an elderly parent,' " she says. "[We had] people saying 'I want to downsize, I don't want a huge house,' [and] people looking for affordable housing. Then there's the vacation side of it."
Some see Cusato's success as a sign of broadening acceptance of small homes.
"Jay Shafer [of Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.] may be the famous one for being at an extreme - under 80 square feet - so he gets on Oprah," says David Harned, a tiny-house devotee who runs the genre-celebrating website tinyhouses.net from his 1,200-square foot home in Kalamazoo, Mich. "[But] I think Ms. Cusato is the first to reach a broad audience with a genuinely small design that won't create a generation of claustrophobes."
Mr. Harned sees the pull of tiny houses as being as strong as that of tiny, efficient cars - an attraction that's intellectually appealing but that can represent a major life change. Full-time use often calls for support systems - communities with shared common spaces. The current "green building" trend and architects like Ross Chapin - who favors a dozen or so small homes arrayed around garden space - have boosted the number of small alternatives
Small-house building represents an art, Harned maintains. "It has to be true to [its chosen] style, and the proportions have to be just right or it kind of looks silly, and like an outbuilding more than a tempting place to go and investigate."
Here in Eureka Springs, woodworker and teacher Doug Stowe ripped old boards lengthwise to achieve proper scale with the siding on the 200-square foot getaway he built on a limestone ledge just up the hill from his unassuming main house.
Mr. Stowe's initial plan - inspired by a treehouse - was for a 7 foot or 8 foot by 10 foot cabin. Then his wife and young daughter asked where the sofa was going to go. "It morphed," Stowe says, into a slightly more elaborate retreat. Last fall he replaced the 100-foot extension cord from the main house with a small solar panel by the cabin, now used for overnights, though no bathroom - not even a composting toilet - is yet on the agenda.
"I'm so fascinated by space," Stowe says, adding that he doesn't understand gratuitous expansion. "I don't know what happened to people's scale of things."
Part of what happened, say Ms. Susanka and others: Too much emphasis has been placed on what is "needed" for home resale as opposed to what's needed for sustainable life.
"My experience is that there is a segment of the population who really love smaller spaces because they don't require nearly as much upkeep, they're much less expensive to run - all sorts of things," says Susanka, who lived briefly in a 96-square foot space in Oregon in the 1970s that required her to hang her Christmas tree upside-down from a rafter.
"They want something that's got quality and character, that's energy-efficient," she says. "It's sustainable design, but it's also something that makes them feel like it's a wonderful place to live."
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WANE. All Rights Reserved.
More Americans are shunning McMansions for smaller, traditional homes.
By Clayton Collins
The Christian Science Monitor
EUREKA SPRINGS, ARK. -- Melissa Greene once lived in a big Victorian, the sort of place with sacrosanct parlors used mainly to display stiff-backed chairs. For the past five years she has lived more contentedly, she says, in a modest 1,100-square-foot home.
She and her husband, Joe, own even smaller houses that they rent to tourists in this arts-rich Ozarks town. This spring, the couple is moving full-time into one of those itty-bitty abodes, a restored 1880s worker's cottage less than half the size of a tennis court. Joe hammered away at a back deck on a recent afternoon.
More on thinking
(really) small
Several books, including "Where Men Hide" (by James B. Twitchell and Ken Ross) and "A Place of My Own" (by Michael Pollan), explore small buildings of the clubhouse variety. More broadly, these websites are maintained by major small-house (even treehouse) builders and advocacy groups:
* The Small House Society, dedicated to the promotion of smaller housing alternatives.
* Romero Studios, a design collaborative that builds "sculptural" tree houses.
* Ross Chapin is a firm specializing in scaled, custom residential design and neighborhood development.
* Tinyhouses.net offers an aggregation of small-house images from around the US.
* The Tiny House Company is a Virginia-based builder of small homes.
* Tumbleweedhouses.com is the homepage of Jay Shafer, a designer specializing in sustainable architecture and urban planning.
"I've always liked them," Ms. Greene says of use-it-all living spaces with dollhouse dimensions that send realtors scrambling for optimistic adjectives. "I even lived in 650 square feet of a bed and breakfast that I had," she says, "though it took a year to learn how."
The Greenes embody a nascent small-house renaissance that has crept from renovations into new construction.
Even in this era of foreclosures and wallet- draining utility bills, plenty of suburban subdivisions still sprout 4,000-sq.-ft. McMansions. But between 2005 - when the average floor area in a new home hit a peak of 2,434 sq. ft. - and 2006, US architects reported less demand for increases in the square footage and volume of homes, says Scott Frank, a spokesman for the American Institute of Architects. He cites "a reversal of the decades of expanding home sizes."
Some of that can be attributed to empty-nest demographics, to property-tax hikes, and to new pockets of communitarian thinking. Some of it is simply style.
" 'Cottage' is the biggest word in decorating right now," says Greene. And if many smaller homes take on the proportions advocated most prominently by Sarah Susanka, author of "The Not So Big House" - think half a McMansion or less - some now borrow from the blueprints of the truly tiny.
Next month, building-supplies giant Lowe's aims to go national with plans and kits for the frame-built "Katrina cottage" developed by Marianne Cusato in the wake of that hurricane as an alternative to government-issue trailers. Options range from 550 to 940 square feet.
"What we've noticed is that as we're building a few down there, the number of phone calls to [our] stores increases threefold," says Jennifer Wilson, a Lowe's spokeswoman. Lowe's declines to release numbers, but Ms. Wilson says requests for $2 plan books have come from every state and "probably almost every continent but Antarctica."
Ms. Cusato, too, was surprised that her design would provoke such interest. "A lot of people instantly came to us and said, 'Wow, it's perfect. I've got an elderly parent,' " she says. "[We had] people saying 'I want to downsize, I don't want a huge house,' [and] people looking for affordable housing. Then there's the vacation side of it."
Some see Cusato's success as a sign of broadening acceptance of small homes.
"Jay Shafer [of Tumbleweed Tiny House Co.] may be the famous one for being at an extreme - under 80 square feet - so he gets on Oprah," says David Harned, a tiny-house devotee who runs the genre-celebrating website tinyhouses.net from his 1,200-square foot home in Kalamazoo, Mich. "[But] I think Ms. Cusato is the first to reach a broad audience with a genuinely small design that won't create a generation of claustrophobes."
Mr. Harned sees the pull of tiny houses as being as strong as that of tiny, efficient cars - an attraction that's intellectually appealing but that can represent a major life change. Full-time use often calls for support systems - communities with shared common spaces. The current "green building" trend and architects like Ross Chapin - who favors a dozen or so small homes arrayed around garden space - have boosted the number of small alternatives
Small-house building represents an art, Harned maintains. "It has to be true to [its chosen] style, and the proportions have to be just right or it kind of looks silly, and like an outbuilding more than a tempting place to go and investigate."
Here in Eureka Springs, woodworker and teacher Doug Stowe ripped old boards lengthwise to achieve proper scale with the siding on the 200-square foot getaway he built on a limestone ledge just up the hill from his unassuming main house.
Mr. Stowe's initial plan - inspired by a treehouse - was for a 7 foot or 8 foot by 10 foot cabin. Then his wife and young daughter asked where the sofa was going to go. "It morphed," Stowe says, into a slightly more elaborate retreat. Last fall he replaced the 100-foot extension cord from the main house with a small solar panel by the cabin, now used for overnights, though no bathroom - not even a composting toilet - is yet on the agenda.
"I'm so fascinated by space," Stowe says, adding that he doesn't understand gratuitous expansion. "I don't know what happened to people's scale of things."
Part of what happened, say Ms. Susanka and others: Too much emphasis has been placed on what is "needed" for home resale as opposed to what's needed for sustainable life.
"My experience is that there is a segment of the population who really love smaller spaces because they don't require nearly as much upkeep, they're much less expensive to run - all sorts of things," says Susanka, who lived briefly in a 96-square foot space in Oregon in the 1970s that required her to hang her Christmas tree upside-down from a rafter.
"They want something that's got quality and character, that's energy-efficient," she says. "It's sustainable design, but it's also something that makes them feel like it's a wonderful place to live."
All content © Copyright 2000 - 2007 WorldNow and WANE. All Rights Reserved.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
DubaiFSBO.com - The First FSBO Real Estate Listing in Dubai
DubaiFSBO.com - The First FSBO Real Estate Listing in Dubai
(PRLEAP.COM) DubaiFSBO.com is the first website that provides For-Sale-By-Owner, Real Estate Agent, Brokers and Dubai Developers, free Dubai Real Estate Listing for extensive exposure to properties on sale.
Acronym FSBO, standing for "For Sale By Owner", has been used widely in the United States of America and worldwide. According to the U.S. National Association of RealtorsTM, their annual survey of real estate consumers shows that 12% of real estate transactions were FSBO in 2006 where an estimated 60% of homes are sold privately.
밊or many property owners using an agent may still be the best option and we are not against Real Estate Agents. We simply believe in offering sellers a choice. We highly recommend Real Estate Agents and Developers to list their properties for sale or for rent?says Steve Suard, owner of DubaiFSBO.com
Some Features of DubaiFSBO.com websites are Pictures, Videos, Maps, GoogleTM Earth, mortgage calculator and more.
Buying and selling property directly, can make savings on real estate listing fee or commissions.
Property owners can choose the amount of day exposure they want their property listing to get with descriptions, multiple photos, videos, floor plan….
Developers and Real Estate Agents have the ability to list unlimited properties for free and if they wish to get additional benefit of exposure on DubaiFSBO.com homepage, there are affordable featured listing packages available.
According to Steve SUARD, Dubai FSBO.com real estate search form allows buyers to search for property listings by area of Real Estate Projects within Dubai (Palm Jumeira, Dubai Marina, Deira, Business Bay? as well as price range and type of property for sale or for rent.
DubaiFSBO.com also offers extremely cost-effective banner advertising options to advertisers looking to reach an extremely targeted audience of Dubai property buyers, sellers and renters.
No doubt, this is the first FSBO website in Dubai and will soon be essential to all buyers and sellers in the United Arab Emirates and worldwide.
Visit : www.DubaiFSBO.com
(PRLEAP.COM) DubaiFSBO.com is the first website that provides For-Sale-By-Owner, Real Estate Agent, Brokers and Dubai Developers, free Dubai Real Estate Listing for extensive exposure to properties on sale.
Acronym FSBO, standing for "For Sale By Owner", has been used widely in the United States of America and worldwide. According to the U.S. National Association of RealtorsTM, their annual survey of real estate consumers shows that 12% of real estate transactions were FSBO in 2006 where an estimated 60% of homes are sold privately.
밊or many property owners using an agent may still be the best option and we are not against Real Estate Agents. We simply believe in offering sellers a choice. We highly recommend Real Estate Agents and Developers to list their properties for sale or for rent?says Steve Suard, owner of DubaiFSBO.com
Some Features of DubaiFSBO.com websites are Pictures, Videos, Maps, GoogleTM Earth, mortgage calculator and more.
Buying and selling property directly, can make savings on real estate listing fee or commissions.
Property owners can choose the amount of day exposure they want their property listing to get with descriptions, multiple photos, videos, floor plan….
Developers and Real Estate Agents have the ability to list unlimited properties for free and if they wish to get additional benefit of exposure on DubaiFSBO.com homepage, there are affordable featured listing packages available.
According to Steve SUARD, Dubai FSBO.com real estate search form allows buyers to search for property listings by area of Real Estate Projects within Dubai (Palm Jumeira, Dubai Marina, Deira, Business Bay? as well as price range and type of property for sale or for rent.
DubaiFSBO.com also offers extremely cost-effective banner advertising options to advertisers looking to reach an extremely targeted audience of Dubai property buyers, sellers and renters.
No doubt, this is the first FSBO website in Dubai and will soon be essential to all buyers and sellers in the United Arab Emirates and worldwide.
Visit : www.DubaiFSBO.com
Monday, April 9, 2007
Selling on your own? You can really get the word out -- free
Selling on your own? You can really get the word out -- free
For-sale-by-owner types can get listed on a key database, thanks to iggyshouse.com.
Gayle Pollard-Terry | Los Angeles Times
Posted April 8, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- Spreading the word about a home you're selling yourself just got cheaper.
Sellers who go the FSBO (for-sale-by-owner) route can add their houses to Multiple Listing Services in Florida and 19 other states for free via realty broker iggyshouse.com.
There are roughly 900 local and regional Multiple Listing Services in the United States, and the MLS system features the biggest database of homes for sale. But it has long excluded most FSBO homes.
MLS services remain important for sellers because agents routinely depend on them for information, and the database provides listings for online sites, including realtor.com.
Each MLS is privately governed and is not required to accept listings from nonmembers.
"It's not a public utility," says National Association of Realtors spokesman Walter Molony. The result is that sellers who want their properties listed must either agree to pay an agent's commission -- generally 5 percent to 6 percent of the sales price -- or patronize a business that provides an MLS listing for a flat fee or as a part of a package.
IggysHouse Realty Inc. can place listings, according to chief executive Joseph Fox, because this licensed realty brokerage firm is a member of Multiple Listing Services. He expects his approach to reduce the number of sellers who depend on agents.
"They are catering to owners who would like to sell on their own, but we recognize they need help," Molony says.
"Our latest consumer survey of buyers and sellers shows that 83 percent of sellers use full-service brokerages, 9 percent use limited brokerages, including discount services, and 8 percent use minimal services."
But IggysHouse, which expects to be in all 50 states by year's end, Fox says, is the first site to allow sellers to list on an MLS at no charge.
Sites such as redfin.com fall in the middle, offering MLS listings at a discount. Sellers pay $2,000 upfront or $3,000 at closing to list in an MLS in California or Washington, says Redfin's Cynthia Pang.
That compares, for example, with $30,000 -- a 6 percent commission on a $500,000 house, split by agents representing a buyer and a seller. For Redfin's fees, sellers receive a lockbox, signs, fliers and Internet marketing, as well as support in negotiations and closing, Pang says.
IggysHouse is providing the service without charging a fee to consumers.
"How is he going to make any money?" NAR spokesman Molony asks.
Fox says IggysHouse is paying the nominal cost for the MLS listings to drive more business to buysiderealty.com, his company's original real estate presence on the Internet. That site rebates 75 percent of the traditional commission received by an agent representing a buyer if the buyer finds his or her own home and works with the company's salaried agents. The remaining 25 percent of that commission goes into the coffers of the company.
"Sellers are buyers," Fox says, explaining that most homeowners who sell one house purchase another, and he wants those buyers. BuySideRealty's online business is growing, he adds, although he declined to discuss by how much.
He did give some examples. A buyer of a $2 million house in Beverly Hills recently received a $42,000 rebate, Fox says, and another who is in escrow on a $2.3 million house is scheduled to receive $48,000. Nationwide, the average rebate is $11,000.
Like other sites that assist FSBOs, IggysHouse also sells for-sale signs, directional signs and lockboxes. And, although there might be some money to be made in that area, Fox's top goal is generating more attention to his other Internet business offerings.
Many Web sites offer services for homeowners intent on selling their own homes, among them forsalebyowner.com, which is owned by Tribune Co., parent company of the Orlando Sentinel, and charges $399 for a six-month listing on the MLS and the Realtors' site.
National Multi List(http://www.nationalmultilist.com) offers $229 flat fee until sold.
The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
For-sale-by-owner types can get listed on a key database, thanks to iggyshouse.com.
Gayle Pollard-Terry | Los Angeles Times
Posted April 8, 2007
LOS ANGELES -- Spreading the word about a home you're selling yourself just got cheaper.
Sellers who go the FSBO (for-sale-by-owner) route can add their houses to Multiple Listing Services in Florida and 19 other states for free via realty broker iggyshouse.com.
There are roughly 900 local and regional Multiple Listing Services in the United States, and the MLS system features the biggest database of homes for sale. But it has long excluded most FSBO homes.
MLS services remain important for sellers because agents routinely depend on them for information, and the database provides listings for online sites, including realtor.com.
Each MLS is privately governed and is not required to accept listings from nonmembers.
"It's not a public utility," says National Association of Realtors spokesman Walter Molony. The result is that sellers who want their properties listed must either agree to pay an agent's commission -- generally 5 percent to 6 percent of the sales price -- or patronize a business that provides an MLS listing for a flat fee or as a part of a package.
IggysHouse Realty Inc. can place listings, according to chief executive Joseph Fox, because this licensed realty brokerage firm is a member of Multiple Listing Services. He expects his approach to reduce the number of sellers who depend on agents.
"They are catering to owners who would like to sell on their own, but we recognize they need help," Molony says.
"Our latest consumer survey of buyers and sellers shows that 83 percent of sellers use full-service brokerages, 9 percent use limited brokerages, including discount services, and 8 percent use minimal services."
But IggysHouse, which expects to be in all 50 states by year's end, Fox says, is the first site to allow sellers to list on an MLS at no charge.
Sites such as redfin.com fall in the middle, offering MLS listings at a discount. Sellers pay $2,000 upfront or $3,000 at closing to list in an MLS in California or Washington, says Redfin's Cynthia Pang.
That compares, for example, with $30,000 -- a 6 percent commission on a $500,000 house, split by agents representing a buyer and a seller. For Redfin's fees, sellers receive a lockbox, signs, fliers and Internet marketing, as well as support in negotiations and closing, Pang says.
IggysHouse is providing the service without charging a fee to consumers.
"How is he going to make any money?" NAR spokesman Molony asks.
Fox says IggysHouse is paying the nominal cost for the MLS listings to drive more business to buysiderealty.com, his company's original real estate presence on the Internet. That site rebates 75 percent of the traditional commission received by an agent representing a buyer if the buyer finds his or her own home and works with the company's salaried agents. The remaining 25 percent of that commission goes into the coffers of the company.
"Sellers are buyers," Fox says, explaining that most homeowners who sell one house purchase another, and he wants those buyers. BuySideRealty's online business is growing, he adds, although he declined to discuss by how much.
He did give some examples. A buyer of a $2 million house in Beverly Hills recently received a $42,000 rebate, Fox says, and another who is in escrow on a $2.3 million house is scheduled to receive $48,000. Nationwide, the average rebate is $11,000.
Like other sites that assist FSBOs, IggysHouse also sells for-sale signs, directional signs and lockboxes. And, although there might be some money to be made in that area, Fox's top goal is generating more attention to his other Internet business offerings.
Many Web sites offer services for homeowners intent on selling their own homes, among them forsalebyowner.com, which is owned by Tribune Co., parent company of the Orlando Sentinel, and charges $399 for a six-month listing on the MLS and the Realtors' site.
National Multi List(http://www.nationalmultilist.com) offers $229 flat fee until sold.
The Los Angeles Times is a Tribune Publishing newspaper.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
How to find right the real estate agent when selling a house
How to find right the real estate agent when selling a house
Saturday, March 31, 2007
By Holden Lewis, Scripps Howard News Service
In much of the country, house sellers have gone from strutting to sulking. Buyers now have the advantage in a lot of markets, as millions of "for sale" signs rust forlornly in front yards.
For sellers, the cyclical return to a buyer's market means that it's important to choose the right real estate agent. Experts offer some advice:
Weigh the pros and cons of selling it yourself. "You have to be crazy to start out with an agent in a market that's a buyer's market," says Colby Sambrotto, chief operating officer of ForSaleByOwner.com. "It's downright financially irresponsible to start out with a 6 percent agent."
On the other hand, you might decide that you need all the help you can get in selling the house.
"With the market right now, the sellers are much less inclined to go FSBO than they were before," Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, says.
Find and interview would-be agents. If you decide to hire an agent, interview at least two candidates. You might want to start out by calling an agent who has been "farming" the neighborhood -- mailing postcards, driving a distinctive vehicle.
"It's a tried-and-true technique, and that's good. The only thing is that just because this agent chose your neighborhood doesn't necessarily mean you should choose that agent," says Elizabeth Razzi, author of "The Fearless Home Buyer" and lately, "The Fearless Home Seller" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $16.95)
Another way to find an agent is to go the indirect route. Pam O'Connor, CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, suggests calling a real estate brokerage and asking for the relocation director, who feeds corporate leads to the broker's agents. Relocation directors "have a lot of good sense of who does a good job and who does not," Ms. O'Connor says.
Assess candidates' knowledge and experience. Mr. Merrion suggests asking job candidates for some hard facts that a good agent should know by heart: the average time on market in the neighborhood and in the metro area, and the average time that agent's houses have been on the market.
Experience is a subjective matter. It's not always about how many properties the agent has sold, but "their ability, willingness and energy," says Phyllis Pezenik, director of sales and leasing for DJK Residential in New York City.
Get a communicator. When interviewing agents, tell them how often you want to be contacted and how -- by e-mail, cell phone, carrier pigeon, whatever.
Ms. Pezenik stresses the importance of hiring someone who is willing to reply to a question with, "I don't know, but I'll be back to you in an hour with an answer."
Define the marketing plan. Ask, "show me the marketing plan for my house," Mr. Merrion says. "What do you have that's different or better than the next agent I'm going to call?"
Let the agent know if you expect an ad in the newspaper every Sunday. Will the agent prepare a brochure? If so, who do the brochures go to?
"Get specifics," Ms. Razzi says. "Show me an example of the kind of brochure you're going to do, the kind of Web page you're going to do, the virtual tour, all of that."
Ask where the listing will go online.
"The answer you want to hear is, 'Everywhere I can put it,' " Ms. Razzi says.
Don't let the listing appear on only the broker's Web site and the local Multiple Listing Service site. Make sure other brokers will be allowed to add the listing to their Web sites.
Many agents contend that they own the listing to your house and that they have the right to restrict the listing from appearing on competing brokers' Web sites. You don't have to hire an agent who subscribes to this notion and you probably shouldn't.
Determine the right asking price. Don't base your choice of an agent on who tells you the house is worth the most, Ms. O'Connor says. "The worst thing you can do is to price your home too high."
How do you know which is the right asking price? An agent who synthesizes a lot of data will make a convincing case.
"I make a map of the neighborhood and list all the other properties that currently are for sale," says Diane Saatchi, senior vice president with The Corcoran Group on Long Island, N.Y.
She lists each house's address and how long it has been on the market. The color-coded map shows which houses have sold in the past six to 12 months, along with sales prices and listing sheets.
"When you look at all that, the right price for a particular property kind of jumps out at you," Ms. Saatchi says.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
By Holden Lewis, Scripps Howard News Service
In much of the country, house sellers have gone from strutting to sulking. Buyers now have the advantage in a lot of markets, as millions of "for sale" signs rust forlornly in front yards.
For sellers, the cyclical return to a buyer's market means that it's important to choose the right real estate agent. Experts offer some advice:
Weigh the pros and cons of selling it yourself. "You have to be crazy to start out with an agent in a market that's a buyer's market," says Colby Sambrotto, chief operating officer of ForSaleByOwner.com. "It's downright financially irresponsible to start out with a 6 percent agent."
On the other hand, you might decide that you need all the help you can get in selling the house.
"With the market right now, the sellers are much less inclined to go FSBO than they were before," Jim Merrion, regional director of RE/MAX Northern Illinois, says.
Find and interview would-be agents. If you decide to hire an agent, interview at least two candidates. You might want to start out by calling an agent who has been "farming" the neighborhood -- mailing postcards, driving a distinctive vehicle.
"It's a tried-and-true technique, and that's good. The only thing is that just because this agent chose your neighborhood doesn't necessarily mean you should choose that agent," says Elizabeth Razzi, author of "The Fearless Home Buyer" and lately, "The Fearless Home Seller" (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, $16.95)
Another way to find an agent is to go the indirect route. Pam O'Connor, CEO of Leading Real Estate Companies of the World, suggests calling a real estate brokerage and asking for the relocation director, who feeds corporate leads to the broker's agents. Relocation directors "have a lot of good sense of who does a good job and who does not," Ms. O'Connor says.
Assess candidates' knowledge and experience. Mr. Merrion suggests asking job candidates for some hard facts that a good agent should know by heart: the average time on market in the neighborhood and in the metro area, and the average time that agent's houses have been on the market.
Experience is a subjective matter. It's not always about how many properties the agent has sold, but "their ability, willingness and energy," says Phyllis Pezenik, director of sales and leasing for DJK Residential in New York City.
Get a communicator. When interviewing agents, tell them how often you want to be contacted and how -- by e-mail, cell phone, carrier pigeon, whatever.
Ms. Pezenik stresses the importance of hiring someone who is willing to reply to a question with, "I don't know, but I'll be back to you in an hour with an answer."
Define the marketing plan. Ask, "show me the marketing plan for my house," Mr. Merrion says. "What do you have that's different or better than the next agent I'm going to call?"
Let the agent know if you expect an ad in the newspaper every Sunday. Will the agent prepare a brochure? If so, who do the brochures go to?
"Get specifics," Ms. Razzi says. "Show me an example of the kind of brochure you're going to do, the kind of Web page you're going to do, the virtual tour, all of that."
Ask where the listing will go online.
"The answer you want to hear is, 'Everywhere I can put it,' " Ms. Razzi says.
Don't let the listing appear on only the broker's Web site and the local Multiple Listing Service site. Make sure other brokers will be allowed to add the listing to their Web sites.
Many agents contend that they own the listing to your house and that they have the right to restrict the listing from appearing on competing brokers' Web sites. You don't have to hire an agent who subscribes to this notion and you probably shouldn't.
Determine the right asking price. Don't base your choice of an agent on who tells you the house is worth the most, Ms. O'Connor says. "The worst thing you can do is to price your home too high."
How do you know which is the right asking price? An agent who synthesizes a lot of data will make a convincing case.
"I make a map of the neighborhood and list all the other properties that currently are for sale," says Diane Saatchi, senior vice president with The Corcoran Group on Long Island, N.Y.
She lists each house's address and how long it has been on the market. The color-coded map shows which houses have sold in the past six to 12 months, along with sales prices and listing sheets.
"When you look at all that, the right price for a particular property kind of jumps out at you," Ms. Saatchi says.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Mortgage woes are moving up a step
Mortgage woes are moving up a step
Associated Press
NEW YORK - The deterioration of the market for mortgage debt at the bottom of the credit ladder may be climbing up to the next rung.
M&T Bank Corp., a Buffalo, N.Y.-based regional bank, said in a Friday regulatory filing that it is having trouble selling some of its loans.
It's not unusual to hear a subprime mortgage lender -- or a mortgage bank that caters to borrowers with bad credit -- complain that investors don't want to buy its loans. What's unusual is that M&T Bank is not a subprime mortgage lender.
Shares of M&T fell 8.5 percent Monday, the first day of trading since its filing. Shares of its competitors fell sharply as well.
M&T Bank said prices dropped more than anticipated in its recent auction of some of its Alt-A loans, which carry better credit than subprime loans but don't require borrowers to provide as much documentation as prime loans. That puts the credit quality of Alt-A loans somewhere above subprime and shy of prime.
The results of the auction don't bode well for investors who believed the credit problems plaguing subprime mortgages would stay contained in subprime mortgages.
The bank cited fewer investors than expected in the bidding, and said the subprime mortgage market, which this year has been wracked by a spike in payment defaults and falling home prices, appears to be hurting the rest of the mortgage market, the bank said.
Associated Press
NEW YORK - The deterioration of the market for mortgage debt at the bottom of the credit ladder may be climbing up to the next rung.
M&T Bank Corp., a Buffalo, N.Y.-based regional bank, said in a Friday regulatory filing that it is having trouble selling some of its loans.
It's not unusual to hear a subprime mortgage lender -- or a mortgage bank that caters to borrowers with bad credit -- complain that investors don't want to buy its loans. What's unusual is that M&T Bank is not a subprime mortgage lender.
Shares of M&T fell 8.5 percent Monday, the first day of trading since its filing. Shares of its competitors fell sharply as well.
M&T Bank said prices dropped more than anticipated in its recent auction of some of its Alt-A loans, which carry better credit than subprime loans but don't require borrowers to provide as much documentation as prime loans. That puts the credit quality of Alt-A loans somewhere above subprime and shy of prime.
The results of the auction don't bode well for investors who believed the credit problems plaguing subprime mortgages would stay contained in subprime mortgages.
The bank cited fewer investors than expected in the bidding, and said the subprime mortgage market, which this year has been wracked by a spike in payment defaults and falling home prices, appears to be hurting the rest of the mortgage market, the bank said.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
FSBO Channels Invites 2.0 Real Estate Agents
FSBO Channels Invites 2.0 Real Estate Agents
NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Lake Junaluska, NC, United States, 02/24/2007 - There is little doubt that the real estate business is amidst a shakeout driven by the internet, technology, and the total access of information.
Understanding 2.0
The term 2.0 is often misused by marketers and advertisers to attract attention, but its origin comes from the 2001 crash of the internet. In a brainstorming session about the future of the web, internet guru Tim O’Reilly referred to the next level of the internet as 2.0. “Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The pretenders are given the bum's rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other” wrote O’Reilly.
The Real Estate Shakeout
There is little doubt that the real estate business is amidst a shakeout driven by the internet, technology, and the total access of information.
An estimated 85% of all buyers turn to the internet where they have instant and free access to thousands of listings, free and instant home valuations, free satellite views of the property and neighborhood, and much more.
Home sellers can easily post their FSBO listing on the internet at a variety of sites including FSBO Channels™ who offers free advertising to FSBO sellers nationwide.
Most buyers and sellers resent paying an agent a full commission that is structured to include the services that they can more efficiently access on their own. They simply see no value there.
2.0 Real Estate Agents
FSBO Channels™ has conducted a survey of more than 1,500 FSBO sellers over the past 6 months, asking them what roll they see real estate agents playing in the future. Nearly 90% of the respondents see a future where the 2.0 real estate agents offer ala Carte services for a fixed fee. Some stated they would use an agent for the negotiation process, others would want help with all of the paperwork, and many stated they would gladly pay for consultation. The bottom line is most FSBO sellers see great value in the expertise of an experienced real estate agent to provide the services that they personally need.
Agent Channels™
FSBO Channels™ will soon launch Agent Channels™ a free professional directory for 2.0 Real Estate Agents who offer ala Carte services. Agent Channels™ will provide these agents a complimentary listing, links, and more. Furthermore, Agent Channels™ will be prominently linked on all 27 FSBO Channels Real Estate Blogs.
NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Lake Junaluska, NC, United States, 02/24/2007 - There is little doubt that the real estate business is amidst a shakeout driven by the internet, technology, and the total access of information.
Understanding 2.0
The term 2.0 is often misused by marketers and advertisers to attract attention, but its origin comes from the 2001 crash of the internet. In a brainstorming session about the future of the web, internet guru Tim O’Reilly referred to the next level of the internet as 2.0. “Shakeouts typically mark the point at which an ascendant technology is ready to take its place at center stage. The pretenders are given the bum's rush, the real success stories show their strength, and there begins to be an understanding of what separates one from the other” wrote O’Reilly.
The Real Estate Shakeout
There is little doubt that the real estate business is amidst a shakeout driven by the internet, technology, and the total access of information.
An estimated 85% of all buyers turn to the internet where they have instant and free access to thousands of listings, free and instant home valuations, free satellite views of the property and neighborhood, and much more.
Home sellers can easily post their FSBO listing on the internet at a variety of sites including FSBO Channels™ who offers free advertising to FSBO sellers nationwide.
Most buyers and sellers resent paying an agent a full commission that is structured to include the services that they can more efficiently access on their own. They simply see no value there.
2.0 Real Estate Agents
FSBO Channels™ has conducted a survey of more than 1,500 FSBO sellers over the past 6 months, asking them what roll they see real estate agents playing in the future. Nearly 90% of the respondents see a future where the 2.0 real estate agents offer ala Carte services for a fixed fee. Some stated they would use an agent for the negotiation process, others would want help with all of the paperwork, and many stated they would gladly pay for consultation. The bottom line is most FSBO sellers see great value in the expertise of an experienced real estate agent to provide the services that they personally need.
Agent Channels™
FSBO Channels™ will soon launch Agent Channels™ a free professional directory for 2.0 Real Estate Agents who offer ala Carte services. Agent Channels™ will provide these agents a complimentary listing, links, and more. Furthermore, Agent Channels™ will be prominently linked on all 27 FSBO Channels Real Estate Blogs.
Friday, March 23, 2007
FSBO Real Estate Channels™ Reports Growing Buyer Activity
FSBO Real Estate Channels™ Reports Growing Buyer Activity
NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Orlando, FL, United States, 02/24/2007 - “Now is the time for FSBO sellers to get their homes listed on FSBO Channels™, Craigslist, and any other internet sites offering listing".
FSBO Channels™ reports today that they have experienced strong daily increases in visitors to their national network of For Sale by Owner sites which is being lead by Atlanta, New York City, Portland, Phoenix, Seattle, and Tampa channels. In these six markets, visitor traffic has doubled and tripled each week over the preceding week for each of the past three weeks, possibly signaling a turn around in the real estate market. They also report a dramatic rise in inquiries from buyers throughout the nation.
“Now is the time for FSBO sellers to get their homes listed on FSBO Channels™, Craigslist, and any other internet sites offering free listing”, says Bert L. Bill, COO. “Real estate had moved to the internet, so get your listing as much internet exposure as possible”, he added.
FSBO Channels™ is a national “For Sale by Owner” real estate network that offers free listings. FSBO Channels was launched on August 8, 2006 with the introduction of Tampa FSBO Channels. The popularity of free “for sale by owner” listings has resulted in FSBO Real Estate Channels growing to 27 blog sites in just 6 months. Thousands of homeowners have listed their homes on FSBO Channels making it one of the fastest growing internet real estate networks in the nation.
FSBO Channels™ is managed by BlogSpot™ Brands a leading internet developer of business, eCommerce, and social blogs with an active network of more than 60 blogs.
On January 17, 2007, BlogSpot™Brands launched CheapBuy™ Channels a “buy direct” virtual shopping mall. Upon the launch of this blog based mega shopping mall, they had attracted more than 1,000 brand name stores and companies such as Zales Jewelers, Rooms To Go, Lands’ End, and Starbucks.
NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Orlando, FL, United States, 02/24/2007 - “Now is the time for FSBO sellers to get their homes listed on FSBO Channels™, Craigslist, and any other internet sites offering listing".
FSBO Channels™ reports today that they have experienced strong daily increases in visitors to their national network of For Sale by Owner sites which is being lead by Atlanta, New York City, Portland, Phoenix, Seattle, and Tampa channels. In these six markets, visitor traffic has doubled and tripled each week over the preceding week for each of the past three weeks, possibly signaling a turn around in the real estate market. They also report a dramatic rise in inquiries from buyers throughout the nation.
“Now is the time for FSBO sellers to get their homes listed on FSBO Channels™, Craigslist, and any other internet sites offering free listing”, says Bert L. Bill, COO. “Real estate had moved to the internet, so get your listing as much internet exposure as possible”, he added.
FSBO Channels™ is a national “For Sale by Owner” real estate network that offers free listings. FSBO Channels was launched on August 8, 2006 with the introduction of Tampa FSBO Channels. The popularity of free “for sale by owner” listings has resulted in FSBO Real Estate Channels growing to 27 blog sites in just 6 months. Thousands of homeowners have listed their homes on FSBO Channels making it one of the fastest growing internet real estate networks in the nation.
FSBO Channels™ is managed by BlogSpot™ Brands a leading internet developer of business, eCommerce, and social blogs with an active network of more than 60 blogs.
On January 17, 2007, BlogSpot™Brands launched CheapBuy™ Channels a “buy direct” virtual shopping mall. Upon the launch of this blog based mega shopping mall, they had attracted more than 1,000 brand name stores and companies such as Zales Jewelers, Rooms To Go, Lands’ End, and Starbucks.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
FSBO Channels™ Free Real Estate Listings Extended To North Carolina
FSBO Channels™ Free Real Estate Listings Extended To North Carolina
FSBO Channels™ announced today that they have extended their free for sale by owner real estate listings to North Carolinians who seek to sell their own homes. The launch of North Carolina FSBO Channels™ provides these sellers with the perfect free internet venue to showcase their home to the thousands of internet savvy buyers searching for North Carolina real estate everyday.
“North Carolina has become one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation for a variety of reasons,” says Ray Whitmer, CEO, who himself lives in Waynesville, North Carolina. “The incredible natural beauty of North Carolina, the high quality of life, and fairly affordable real estate has made this state very popular with retiring baby boomers and the tens of thousands of coastal residents fleeing excessive insurance rates and high property taxes. We expect North Carolina FSBO Channels™ to become one of our most active sites,” he added.
The growing popularity of home owners choosing to sell their own homes has helped propel the growth of FSBO Channels™ to national prominence in just seven months. Since their August, 2006 launch, FSBO Channels™ www.fsbochannels.com has attracted thousands of FSBO listings from throughout the nation.
There is no question that the current real estate market is a buyers market, and the buyers are shopping the internet for real estate like never before according to FSBO Channels™ research. “Internet savvy buyers are most interested in finding For Sale by Owner listings for the mere fact that they are likely to make a better deal when there is no real estate agent involved,” said Whitmer.
FSBO Channels™ reports strong increases in buyer traffic at all of its sites over the past several weeks with the strongest growth in western cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle. According to FSBO Channels™ researchers, these increases in buyer traffic may signal the beginning of a general real estate recovery, or they may point simply to more buyers seeking FSBO listings.
FSBO Channels™ announced today that they have extended their free for sale by owner real estate listings to North Carolinians who seek to sell their own homes. The launch of North Carolina FSBO Channels™ provides these sellers with the perfect free internet venue to showcase their home to the thousands of internet savvy buyers searching for North Carolina real estate everyday.
“North Carolina has become one of the hottest real estate markets in the nation for a variety of reasons,” says Ray Whitmer, CEO, who himself lives in Waynesville, North Carolina. “The incredible natural beauty of North Carolina, the high quality of life, and fairly affordable real estate has made this state very popular with retiring baby boomers and the tens of thousands of coastal residents fleeing excessive insurance rates and high property taxes. We expect North Carolina FSBO Channels™ to become one of our most active sites,” he added.
The growing popularity of home owners choosing to sell their own homes has helped propel the growth of FSBO Channels™ to national prominence in just seven months. Since their August, 2006 launch, FSBO Channels™ www.fsbochannels.com has attracted thousands of FSBO listings from throughout the nation.
There is no question that the current real estate market is a buyers market, and the buyers are shopping the internet for real estate like never before according to FSBO Channels™ research. “Internet savvy buyers are most interested in finding For Sale by Owner listings for the mere fact that they are likely to make a better deal when there is no real estate agent involved,” said Whitmer.
FSBO Channels™ reports strong increases in buyer traffic at all of its sites over the past several weeks with the strongest growth in western cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Portland, and Seattle. According to FSBO Channels™ researchers, these increases in buyer traffic may signal the beginning of a general real estate recovery, or they may point simply to more buyers seeking FSBO listings.
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