Commissions & New Construction

Kudos to the North Carolina Real Estate Commission, which has taken a great step to protect the interests of home buyers.

We all know how real estate commissions work... a seller hires a broker/agent to sell their house and, once it sells, they get paid commission fees to their agent as well as to the buyer's agent.

But what most people don't know is that many homebuilders also offer additional bonuses targeted at agents who represent buyers. So when your agent is talking up those newly developed homes, instead of pre-existing homes, buyers should be mindful that the agent might have a financial incentive to have you buy the newly constructed home. To help inform buyers of these incentives, the N.C. Real Estate Commission passed a rule requiring that agents provide a written disclosure of bonuses they might receive if their client buys new construction.

Only a few states have this requirement, which are important so that consumers are aware of their agent's financial incentive as they go through the home search process.

http://www.ForSaleByOwner.com

Department of Justice - NAR Settlement

ForSaleByOwner.com has made the following statement regarding the settlement between the U.S. Justice Department and the National Association of Realtors:

“We welcome the announcement of the settlement between the Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors as a step in the right direction toward creating a completely free and open marketplace for residential real estate and for the consumer. We look forward to learning more about NAR’s new policies as they are developed.”

“The settlement notwithstanding, there is still much work to be done. At ForSalebyOwner.com, we are on the vanguard of the effort to create an even more open industry, in which consumers have as much choice, access to information and freedom as possible – no matter how they chose to buy or sell their homes. We will continue to advocate, and innovate, on behalf of expanded consumer choices and the availability of complete information for real estate consumers.”

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ForSaleByOwner.com Releases Home Price Data

Ever wonder how a "for sale by owner" listing compared to a home listed with a real estate agent? Today we provided the marketplace with data on our customers' listings and found that our median home price stood at $267,900 during the first quarter of 2008. During the same time period, homes represented by real estate agents stood at $196,300.

This new data will help to educate consumers that 'for sale by owner' listings are found at every pricing level. Real estate agents would like consumers to think otherwise, and they often flood the marketplace with questionable data to discredit the 'for sale by owner' method. The National Association of Realtors has even gone on the record stating that a 'for sale by owner' home is “likely to be a mobile or manufactured home.” We can only guess why they would want to make this sort of insinuation.

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Real Estate & the Internet

We’ve long said that the marketing power of the Internet has literally changed the face of real estate, helping to provide open access to real estate data & information that previously was only readily available to real estate agents. The Internet has allowed for the three key steps to selling a home (effectively pricing a home, marketing a home and transferring the title) to be done in a very efficient and affordable manner – all a person needs is an Internet connection.

The Internet will continue to have a large and growing role within the real estate industry, and the topic continues to be an important subject followed by the media. As the country’s leading “for sale by owner” company & website, we’re consistently covered in the press. Read this U.S. News & World Report article that came out this week, as well as this Money Magazine story from the publication’s June issue.