In case you needed more reasons to sell ‘ for sale by owner ‘ check out these statistics:
According to data from Clear Capital, a real-estate valuation and data provider for banks and investment firms, Las Vegas home prices have fallen 50.7% from their peak and are now where they were in the second quarter of 2002. A report from Moody’s Economy.com, released the first week of February, predicted that the Case-Shiller house price index will fall another 11% from the fourth quarter of 2008. By the end of the real-estate downturn, prices will have fallen by double digits, from peak to trough, in almost 62% of the nation’s 381 metro areas, according to the report. In 10% of the areas, declines will be more than 30%.
With prices at historic lows, paying a real estate commission doesn’t make a lot of sense. Buyers are beginning to warm to the market with the bargains now available. If you’re selling and buying, the difference in price of home you can now afford is relatively greater than ever before. For those brave enough to sell right now, this could be a terrific Spring market for homes priced 5-6% below the competition.
According to the National Association of Realtors’® own research, home sellers may be better off selling on their own than with an agent. In a survey published last year, the median sales price of sellers’ homes who sold ‘for sale by owner‘ was 1% higher than those sold by real estate agents and took 3 weeks less time to sell. Add to that the 5-6% savings enjoyed by FSBO sellers and you’ve got quite an incentive to try it on your own.
It’s unusual that the trade organization for real estate agents would publish data contrary to the interests of its membership, however, NAR’s spin is that for sale by owner sellers are pricing their houses too low and that’s why they’re selling faster and for more money. IMO – another example of the under estimation of the consumer’s intelligence by Realtors®, that’s only serving to hasten the end of traditional real estate brokerage.
There’s never been a better time for ‘for sale by owner‘ real estate models. Companies that cater to the ‘FSBO’ sellers are seeing huge increases in business during the economic downturn. As the economy has devastated major portions of the real estate market and along with them consumer’s equity in their homes, more and more sellers are forced to seek alternatives to paying a traditional commission. On the heals of a decade of historically high loan to value mortgages being issued by now failed mortgage companies, many home owners simply don’t have the equity to pay a traditional real estate commission of 5% or more. And after being battered by job losses and stock market value declines not many people are willing or able to bring cash to the closing table to make up the difference between their property’s sales price and the expenses associated with selling a property.
Companies that assist for sale by owner real estate sellers offer a way out for home sellers by providing needed marketing and sales assistance for a low, manageable fee. In fact, bloomkey.com, for instance, offers a FSBO monthly payment program to help sellers get the marketing exposure they need by placing their properties into the Realtor® Multiple Listing Service and on top websites like Realtor.com® to help home sellers compete in an extremely competitive market. For as little as $85 a month, sellers can now get the exact same marketing exposure for their homes once only available from real estate agents and brokers charging 5-6% of the sales price of a property.
FSBO companies provide economic assistance to home owners at a time when it’s needed more than ever. The proliferation of online, alternative real estate models couldn’t have come at a better time for consumers.
