Real estate investors were among the first to discover the advantages of flat fee MLS listing. Predisposed to retaining equity, investors are keen to ideas that save them money with their real estate transactions and flat fee MLS gives the greatest chance of a sale while keeping selling costs down. Investors already understand the intricacies of selling a home or property, so many of the services provided by a real estate agent are just simply superfluous. All an investor needs is access to the market provided by the Realtor® Multiple Listing Service. The MLS is the Realtor’s database of available property used by real estate agents and brokers to assist each other in selling property listings. Since most real estate sells through the MLS, it’s critically important to have your property listed along with the other properties currenlty on the market. As a real estate investor paying a 5-6% commission just to be listed in the MLS is a deal breaker. Flat fee MLS allows the investor to pay a low, fixed fee to market their property to all of the area real estate agents and their buyers.
The Canadian Competition Bureau (Canada’s version of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission) announced today that it will challenge rules imposed by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) that limit consumer choice and prevent innovation in the market for residential real estate services. CREA’s rules have so far prevented the establishment of entry only MLS listing firms that have proliferated throughout the United States and which help lower costs for consumers seeking to sell their homes. For instance, CREA’s rules require that in order for a consumer to list a property in the MLS they must also purchase contract negotiation services. Melanie Aitken, Commissioner of Competition said, “Consumers should be able to choose which services they want to buy in order to facilitate that transaction, including lower-cost options. While the Bureau would have preferred to resolve this matter amicably, CREA’s leadership was unwilling to agree to changes that would have opened up competition, and offered options for consumers and real estate agents.”
For more information, visit http://competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/03196.html
If there was ever a time to take advantage of selling by owner, this would be it. With housing prices on the rebound, tax credits available for home buyers and mortgage rates still hovering at 5% selling a home or property for sale by owner is within the grasp of more sellers than ever before. Add to the current favorable conditions for FSBO’s is the fact that for sale by owner services in the form of flat fee marketing and advertising have exploded all over the Internet. Competition among flat fee providers has caused the rates for exposing your property to millions of people to fall to the lowest they’ve ever been in the history of real estate.
For a primer on how to get the most out of selling your home or other real estate by owner, visit Bloomkey’s How to Guide at www.bloomkey.com/forsalebyowner.php.
Another great real estate resource for “for sale by owner” real estate sellers is the site at www.HouseZooks.com. HouseZooks gives sellers access to information and services critical to selling a home or property. Tools available at HouseZooks include home valuation, local area statistics information and resources, mortgage rate information and calculators and closing cost estimation. Through HouseZooks you also can purchase reduced rate FSBO advertising and marketing on the local Realtor Multiple Listing Service for most areas of the country and/or advertisement on the leading real estate websites and portals. The online Real Estate Store at HouseZooks offers by owner sellers products such as For Sale signs, key lockboxes, virtual tours and other items designed to assist in the home selling process.
FSBO Statistics
The old quote, ‘Some people use statistics like a drunken man uses a lampost; for support rather than illumination’ couldn’t be more appropo that for the real estate industry. An often quoted statistic by Realtors is from the National Association of Realtors annual survey to support or buttress its argument. On the NAR website, it provides this statistic “the typical FSBO home sold for $187,200 compared to $247,000 for agent-assisted home sales.” (2007 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers) The other often quoted statistic is that Realtor assisted sale achieves a 16% premium over FSBO sales.
The problem with statistics about For Sale By Owner sales is that the only source of information we have is from ‘inside’ the real estate industry where statisticians have more than a small incentive to report figures that support using a real estate agent and ignore stats that might promote FSBO as an alternative. First, there are way too many unknown variables. It seems nearly impossible to identify and track FSBO statistics. For example, there are variations of FSBO with sales directly by owner, sales with marketing by FSBO companies, and sales via MLS-only or limited service options available from discount real estate brokerages. Are these more even-handedly to be considered FSBO listings or should they be included in the statistics of Realtor sales?
Since any listing that appears in the MLS is lumped in with Realtor sales figures, it stands to reason that the results are already tainted. For there own reasons, NAR surveys haven’t split out the differences between listings serviced by ‘full-commission, full-service’ real estate practitioners and those handled by ‘limited service or flat-fee’ professionals. Until there is some attempt within the NAR to distinguish among these types of sales with regard to FSBO sales, then the statistics will unswervingly support the notion that property owners in the U.S. simply cannot hope to outperform Realtors when it comes to selling real estate.
Some people have expressed concern over trying to sell a home by owner in a buyer’s market. For Sale By Owner is considered a risky prospect by many home sellers even in a good market. After all, that’s why real estate agents make so much money right?
Consider this then. What’s the most important factor in selling a home in a buyer’s market? If you answered ‘price’, you’d be correct. So how does adding 6% or so to your sales price affect your ability to sell in a buyer’s market? Negatively, of course. Having to pay an agent commission actually causes more harm than good when it comes to selling your home in a competitive market.
But what about the marketing exposure you ask? Isn’t the only way to reach enough buyers to sell your home in a tough market through a real estate agency with all of thier contacts and ability to reach a larger audience? The answer is yes. But that doesn’t mean you have to give away 6% of your home’s gross sales price. If what you need is marketing exposure you can list with a flat fee MLS listing company like Bloomkey.com. For a low, one-time flat fee you can get the exposure you need to sell your home in a buyer’s market and still price your home competitively. And if you need help with the contract or have questions about the process, you can add those services for a flat fee rather than giving up your home’s equity.
FSBO in a Buyer’s Market? Absolutely!
Why is it so difficult for by owner sellers to price a home correclty? Although a home is a commodity just like any other, homes tend to take on a life of their own once you have lived in them for a number of years. After all, this is where you first lived after getting married, or raised your children, or made improvements by hand and even added an addition by yourself, etc. It’s hard to separate years of living from the home itself. Of course your ‘home’ should be worth a little bit more (or a lot) that your neighbors. You’ve bled, sweated and cried there. You know all that’s gone into the place to make it ‘better’ than the others.
But to sell a home or any other commodity you have to take yourself out of the equation. Put yourself in the buyers shoes because that’s who’s going to help determine the actual market value of your home. For buyers, who generally know nothing about the history of the property, other than what’s printed on a flyer or posted on the web, your house it just one of many to choose from. Price being equal, the house with most square footage, bedrooms, baths, amenitites and best location and condition is the one that will command the market. As much as it may pain you to realize it, noone else cares how much time and work you put into the home if they can buy a similar home for less money.
In market’s like this, price is king and the buyer’s are in the drivers seat when it comes to home pricing. Gone are the days when deciding which offer to select was the biggest problem a home seller encountered. Today’s FSBO, more than ever, has to be market sensitve when it comes to pricing their home correctly.
Selling your home without paying a commission is easy if you know how to market your home. Reaching potential buyers is the challenge for the for sale by owner seller. How can you afford to market to the masses with just one product to sell? Most home sellers just aren’t able to reach enough potential buyers to effect a sale.
Now you can afford to market your home just like the professionals for as low as $249.00. With bloomkey’s Realtor.com Only listing package your home will be listed on the nation’s leading real estate website, Realtor.com, with over 6 million unique monthly visitors. And your property will appear on hundreds of real estate websites to maximize your exposure.
Everyone knows that selling for sale by owner can save home sellers thousands of dollars in real estate commissions. But what most FSBO sellers don’t realize is that it takes time to sell a home. Especially in today’s market, you have to be willing to give yourself the time necessary to create the opportunity for a sale. Statistics show that most ‘for sale by owner‘ sellers end up turning the marketing of their homes over to a real estate agent after just a few weeks. Most unexperienced sellers just don’t have the confidence to ‘wait it out. They panic when offers don’t come pouring in during the early stages of putting their home on the market. There’s a feeling that they ‘must’ be missing something and that only an agent can give them the exposure and traffic they need to sell.
What FSBO sellers don’t realize is that most of the time, agents themselves take months to sell a home. More and more agents are taking 12 month listings to ensure that they don’t expend their money and efforts on a listing that doesn’t sell. They KNOW that marketing a home is a matter of pricing the home correctly, letting the most people possible know that it’s on the market and then waiting for the ‘right’ buyer to come along. It isn’t rocket science, but experience, confidence and a little *patience* helps.
Selling your Greensboro home this year? Now’s the time with the Spring season and real estate beginning to rebound. Selling by owner in Greensboro right now takes special planning and attention to marketing. You’ll need to get the maximum exposure possible for your home in order to attract enough buyers to effect a sale.
Newspaper ads used to be the best way to tell the world about your home for sale by owner, but today’s real estate market is dominated by the Internet. Over 80% of home buyers now use the Internet when buying a home. One look at the major search sites like Realtor.com, Zillow.com, Trulia.com and others and you can quickly see why. You can preview homes in greater detail online than you ever could with print advertisements. Virtual tours, podcasts, multiple photos, Google Street View® mapping all combine to make property search more accessible and enlightening.
So what do you need to do to ensure that your home gets listed on the top real estate websites without spending a fortune? Bloomkey.com now offers listing on the top real estate websites for a low flat-fee of just $249.00! Now you can get more exposure for your home than if it was listed with a real estate agent and still save your home’s equity. Buyers can find and view details about your property from anywhere in the world. And, you’ll get a faster sale at a higher price because you’ve created the demand you need to get the home sold.
