Warning to Thurston County agents - and this goes for FSBO folks too… March 3, 2008
February 25, 2008. The NWMLS has received information (Thurston County area) concerning a male individual who looked at homes with an agent — all of the information he provided about himself and his employment was false. He claims to be a buyer’s consultant with the Federal Government, a PhD in Physics, his wife a professor [...]
For-Sale-By-Owners sell for more because agents sell for less June 8, 2007
Two Northwestern University economists have found that for sale by owners (FSBOs) in Madison sell for slightly more or about the same as houses represented by agents in the area, figuring that after commission costs the FSBO sellers came out ahead. There are some comments in the article about the National Association or Realtor’s (bogus) [...]
Why FSBO without putting it in the MLS? March 23, 2007
Last week, a Seattle-area woman contacted us out of the blue asking if we advertise FSBOs and FSBO open houses on ShackPrices (we don’t), which led to a back-and-forth exchange that went sort of like this:
Me: Out of curiosity, why don’t you list your home in the MLS for $400 and get a lot more [...]
Zillow’s new way to spite your neighbor December 7, 2006
Mix Zillow’s amazing capacity to quietly market itself and its new feature (list your home on Zillow, FSBO or FSBAgent) and you have a great new service for driving traffic… to your annoying neighbor’s house. List their house at 25% below Zillow’s estimated value and invite people to come by to see the place anytime [...]
Zillow.com says “MAKE ME Move” December 6, 2006
LOL, it’s going to be one of those fun days on the Internet. It really has been way too quiet, except for Greg’s Bubble War, so I’m glad for a little excitement.
At 9 p.m. PST, Zillow is unveiling their newest major upgrade which allows both consumers and agents to upload their homes and listings…apparently, [...]
Does It Really Matter….? November 27, 2006
Ardell’s recent post on FSBOs was courageous as you won’t see many agents talk about how one might sell a property without listing it. While it may be a bit counter intuitive to some agents, one reading the post should come away feeling that Ardell (and others like her) are not in the business [...]
Addiction to technology can be damaging to your mental health August 23, 2006
Yesterday’s list of ten stories was fun to write… So in cleaning out the 400+ unread stories that had accumulated in my feed reader, I came up with these ten stories for today:
I’ve had countless people ask me about how to set up a wordpress blog, so I was glad to see Matt [...]
Discounters, FSBO’s and Redfin - Oh MY! And why they shouldn’t matter July 20, 2006
So many recent articles and posts have focused on these “new” real estate practices and how they are all reducing commissions, going to drive the stodgy old guard out of business and revolutionize the industry. I’ve also both read and listened to a lot of “traditional” real estate agents complain about discounters and how they [...]
“Disguised” FSBO Market Share July 16, 2006
Some big news happened last week in Texas which I discuss on my blog. In a nutshell, the FTC obtained a Consent Order from the Austin Board of Realtors to eliminate a rule that treated Exclusive Agency Listings different from Exclusive Right to Sell Listings, at least with respect to the publishing of those listings [...]
FSBO will not take over the world January 4, 2006
And with a title like that, I might just eat my words. There was an interesting story in New York Times story about FSBO yesterday. It describes a (ugly!) FSBO online service in Madison Wisconsin that has grown immensely over the past few years. I feel a little like a curmudgeon [...]
