There are many different ways to buy or sell a home.

The following are examples of what kinds of methods you will be dealing with when making a Real Estate transaction.

For Sale By owner (FSBO)

           One way about 30% of all homeowners sell their house is by For Sale By Owner. This is how a homeowner tries to save money on what a full service broker would have charged them for the sale of their home. Usually they will run an ad in the paper, hold open houses, and/or place ads on one of many FSBO web sites on the internet.

           In order to get the best price you can and have a chance of selling it the homeowner has to be able to keep in contact with potential buyers as much as possible. Going to work, and going out on the weekend minimizes the number of potential buyers thus resulting in a lower sale price if left on the market for an extended period of time. Many times the homeowner has a certain window of time to sell before having to pay out extra expenses like 2 mortgages and taxes so shrewd home buyers or investors try to capitalize on this situation because they know the homeowner is not paying a percentage to a broker.

          Most buyers go to Realtors because it simplifies the home search. They have most of the available properties in one system that is Cooperative. A FSBO only has one property to sell at a time and buyers would have to make individual arrangement a large group of sellers. Many sellers are hard to get a hold of or they don't cancel their ads when they are no longer selling so this frustrates potential buyers.

Website Advertising

          The Web is filled with thousands of web sites that have ads with homes for sale. There are many that home owners pay to put ads of their homes on. People from all over the world can view them 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Buyers can see the house before they even drive buy.

           Web site advertising is great if maintained regularly. Sites where For Sale By Owners advertise depend on the owners to pull the ad when the home is taken off the market. Unfortunately many of these web sites are polluted with old ads owners were lazy to take off. Buyers call numbers that are disconnected or get a new family across town. 

            On the House Market Values Network we offer a FREE listings in our classified section in available areas. Our Local Service Providers maintain the lists and communicate with owners to make sure the information is accurate as possible.To post your FREE classified ad just click on List For FREE.

Flat Fee Brokers and Discount Brokers

          A new method of doing business in the Real Estate industry are flat fee brokerage and discount brokers whom charge sellers for services that they plan on using. Capitalizing on homeowners that expect to pay a certain amount only to find that they have limited marketing capabilities. They typically charge an up front fee for "advertising" a home. For an extra fee many will put the home on MLS and the owner agrees to pay an additional 3% to 3.5% if the buyer’s broker sells the home. You may sell the home yourself and save the buyer’s commission. Many offer lower commissions than full service brokers do on the MLS so agents will not like to show the house. 

           Watch out for discount brokers that claim to give full service but actually give discount service. There are discount brokers that claim to sell for a low price only disclosing what it would cost if they sell it. The discount broker actually does nothing to sell the home themself relying on MLS to sell it resulting in an additional commission of up to 3% to the office that actually brings in the buyer.

          In discount broker ads it is common for them to claim to save a certain amount of dollars for a particular home in an ad. They may mention only what their end of the deal was. For example if a home sells for $200,000.00 and it sold on MLS, the homeowner actually pays about $10,000.00 in commissions. The ad will say the client actually saved $5,000.00 in commission. Meanwhile the up front or discount percent only covered the "Listing Agent" commission. So the ad will only mention the fees the discount broker charged the homeowner and not the additional commission that the "Buyers agent" got. So the savings is compared to a 6% commission that the "Listing Agent' would have been paid if executing both the "Listing" and "selling"end of the deal.   

          Another tactic being used by discount brokers is to allow owners to have an open listing (if the agents sells it the agent is paid a commission or if the owners sells it the agent gets no commission) or use the owner's home for advertising. If the owner is the one that produces the buyer, thus selling it themself the discount broker then claims in ads that the owner saved so many thousands by using their discount services.

          The seller usually signs a disclaimer that the listing broker is in a no-agency relationship with the seller. This means that the seller is responsible for handling the seller end of the transaction. They have to make all the arrangements for buyers and real estate agents to show their home. Most of the time the home will get sold on MLS and the seller is up against a professional agent that is looking out for their client interests resulting in a lower overall net profit in the sale.

            So you are thinking about using a discount broker? Remember the only way to save on commission is to sell it yourself. If you can not sell on your own or you want maximum market price in minimal time then a reputable full service broker will probably be your best option.

Full Service Brokers

          Most sellers hate to pay for the professional services offered by a full service broker. The fact of the matter is that most sellers will eventually list with a full service broker. The reason is that buyers go to Full Service Brokerage is because they want the convenience and professional negotiating experience offered by many reputable well established full service brokers do today. 

          Full service brokers have the one thing sellers want, BUYERS. The safest way for a seller to minimize liability, increase qualified buyer traffic, and maximize full market value is to list your home with an agent associated with a reputable and established broker that is looking out for their interests and have a full fiduciary relationship (one of trust and confidence) to sell for them.  

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