mot ([info]symmys) wrote,
@ 2007-08-19 10:21:00
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Real Estate Sites
One of the things K & I do periodically is look at houses -- one of these days we'll have to buy one. I'm relatively convinced that using a realtor is stupid. They cost about 6% of the cost of a house, which means that to be cost effective, they have to save you at least that % on a sale. I'm plenty nervous about how well I "know the market", but 6% translates to ~$15-25k -- I think after looking at houses for a long time I could spot a good price within that window. i.e. I think a realtor is a waste of money.

I'm not the only person to think this, which leads me to wonder: where are the good "for sale by owner" websites? I've started looking for them, but most of what I find is terrible web design. I've found pages where ads covered up pictures (because the pictures weren't automatically resized to fit in the webpage), pages that showed me homes nowhere near the zipcode I searched, and a number of pages that asked sellers to pay large amounts for listings (~$300), which resulted in paltry numbers of listings.

Craigslist is among the best sites to look for real estate, capitalizing on its general popularity, but it's not a real estate site so it doesn't have any of the extras to compete with better real estate sites that provide nice maps, multiple photos, etc.

So, my question is, has anyone found a for-sale-by-owner site that is adequately web 2.0 to compete with the better real estate companies? If not, what accounts for the gap?

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[info]eighthblackbird
2007-08-19 02:52 pm UTC (link)
crap. i don't remember the name. there's a website that does this (so well that the realtors association keeps trying to run them out of town). i heard about it on the news months back. so this is a deeply unhelpful comment except to say keep looking, it does exist (but might not exist in your area cause the realtors won't let it)?

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[info]froggoddess
2007-08-19 08:05 pm UTC (link)
I heard about it on the news awhile back, too -- they're out of Seattle, or some kind of west coast city, and the national association of realtors is trying to block them as hard as they can.

In any case, in MA if you have a buyer's broker you end up paying them indirectly -- all of the costs come out of the seller's profit, so of course the listing prices reflect that. So at least you don't have to pay for it, initially, out of pocket. But I also feel like I vaguely remember there being some actual reason for the realtor -- like there's some part of the transaction in MA that you can't do without a realtor -- the Purchase and Sale? Something...

Anyway -- the best thing you'll ever do, whether you go for sale by owner or not, is to take the first-time homebuyer's course. I consulted my notes from that over and over and over during the process. Your local community development organization should run them on a fairly regular basis. If you can't track them down, ask a local bank who runs the classes, as they're a prerequisite for some of the first-time homebuyer loan deals (not the subprime crap, but the state-backed loans).

Happy house-hunting!! It's so much fun!

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[info]drlynch
2007-08-19 09:33 pm UTC (link)
if you have a good realtor, they will earn their commission if any complications arise with the old homeowners. my sister and helgagrace, for instance, would probably say that they are getting their money's worth out of their realtors even though during the looking stage my sister pretty much did everything herself. if no complications arise, i can understand your feelings but if you have two working people with limited vacation time who cannot work on the sale during the daytime, a realtor comes in handy.

now i *do* wonder why my sister is paying a lawyer to do her sale agreement for her but i am probably really stupid.

and my sister did not have to take a course to qualify for the first-time buyers loans (which forgive your closing costs among other things). she is, on the other hand, a property lawyer.

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[info]symmys
2007-08-19 11:16 pm UTC (link)
Just curious -- what kinds of complications do realtors help with?

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[info]drlynch
2007-08-23 03:14 pm UTC (link)
it is not unusual for there to be issues after your offer and before the sale contract--particularly after the inspection, when either you or your bank (if you are getting a mortgage) may have certain requests or demands. in some cases, they really could be $25,000 problems if somehow you will have to take out all the knob and tube wiring, replace the roof and remove some asbestos.

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