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With the recent desperation in the housing market, home values are falling substantially across the United States. Homeowners are investigating 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 stumped me. I have sold numerous houses over the years and the real estate agent never sold my house. In one case, I even sold my own house when someone knocked on my door after seeing my sign. I negotiated a price on the spot and shook his hand without the real estate agent. The sad part of the matter was that he made 6% of the sale of my house ($16,000) for doing nothing. I remember asking him if he could give me a discount on the commission price since I sold the house. He rudely said that it was his sign in front of my house that sold the house, not me.
According to 2006 National Association of Realtors statistics, 13% of all homes were sold without a realtor. 90% of FSBO (For Sale By Owner) sellers end up going to real estate agents in the end. Be that as it may, I decided to check out some of these websites and the options they offer.
I started my research by googling. 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 want to add more photos, it will cost you.
2. BuyOwner.com: They don’t have a price listed on their website, they recommend you call them. They offer great virtual tours. BuyOwner sends people to your home to take these virtual images. I’m not sure of the price, but I had a friend who used your 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 to the Multiple Listing Service. If an agent comes along and sells your house, you would only pay them 3% instead of paying the full 6% if you hired an agent like I have in the past.
4. ForSaleOwnerHomes.com: They also offer a free listing service. These free websites like ForSaleOwnerhomes.com make money through things like Google ads, that’s why they can keep their listing services for free.
5. ForSaleByOwner.com: The listing fee is $89.95 per month or a flat fee of $199 to be listed until your property is sold.
There are more websites, but you get a general idea of what is there. If you’re planning to sell your home, I recommend doing the same research I did and listing on as many free websites as possible. If you do and sell your house, you will only have more money in your pocket in the end.