With the recent despair in the housing market, house values are dropping substantially throughout the US. Homeowners are researching ways to recoup some of their losses by selling their homes on their own.
Hiring a real estate agent to sell your home has always perplexed me. I have sold numerous homes over the years and the listing agent never actually sold my home. In one case I even sold my own home when someone knocked on my door after seeing my sign. I negotiated a price then and there and shook hands on it without the real estate agent. The sad part of the matter was that he made 6% on my home sale ($16,000) without doing anything. I remember asking him if he could give me a break in the commission price since I sold the home. In a rude manner he said that it was his sign in front of my house that sold the home, not me.
According to 2006 National Association of Realtor statistics, 13% of all homes were sold without a real estate agent. 90% of FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sellers end up going to realtors in the end. Be that as it may, I decided to check in to some of these websites and the options they offer.
I started my research by searching on Google. I found a list of National For Sale By Owner websites. Here is a quick overview of my search results.
1. HomesByOwner.com: You can list your home for free. You can upload 1 photo in the free section. If you would like to add more photos, it will cost you.
2. BuyOwner.com: They do not have a price listed on their website, they recommend that you call them. They offer great Virtual Tours. BuyOwner sends people out to your home to take these Virtual Images. I am not sure on the price, but I had a friend who used their service and spent $2,300. Contact BuyOwner.com for more details.
3. Owners.com: They provide a free listing service. They also offer a $377 MLS listing fee to add your property in to the Multiple Listing Service. If an agent shows up and sells your home, you would only pay the 3% to them as opposed to paying the full 6% if you hired a agent as I have in the past.
4. ForSaleOwnerHomes.com: They also offer a free listing service. These free websites like ForSaleOwnerhomes.com make their money through things like Google ads, that is why they can keep their listing services for free.
5. ForSaleByOwner.com: Fee for a listing is $89.95 a month or a flat fee of $199 to be listed until your property is sold.
There are more websites, but you get the general idea of what is out there. If you are planning on selling your home, I recommend you go through the same research I did and list on as many free websites as possible. If you hit it and sell your home, you will only have more money in your pocket in the end.
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