For Sale By Owner homes

Why pay to list your home on another for-sale-by-owner website? You can list your For Sale By Owner home on this website with 12 photos for free! Just follow our simple step-by-step instructions. When you're done, you'll be able to direct buyers to your listing with a simple web address. That address will be our domain name plus your listing number. For example: forsalebyownerhomes.com/1858 Use that link in your ads, flyers, sign, or link from another webpage. Click Here for Details

Steps to List Your For Sale By Owner home in MLS

1. Select your State on our Map
2. Review services offered and click on "Place Order"
3. Enter order information and property address
4. A receipt for your online payment will be emailed to you
5. Later that day or the next business morning you will receive an email with instructions and information we need from you to enter your listing in MLS. Call us if you do not get this email within 24 hours after you place your order.
6. From this point forward, the broker assigned to your listing will be your primary point of contact.
7. Once you submit the required information, your property will get listed in MLS, usually no later than the next business day.
8. It will take one to five days for your listing to appear in Realtor.com® and other websites after it is entered in MLS. How soon depends on how often and when the MLS feeds their data to the various websites.

Why a For Sale By Owner MLS Listing is better than listing with a 6% agent

Your For Sale By Owner home is listed in the same local MLS for a low Flat Fee that other sellers are paying a 6% commission for. You have the ability to avoid commissions completely if you find a buyer without an agent. A typical 6% listing contract obligates you to pay the full 6%, even if you find a buyer on your own.

Typical 6% Agents use your home to generate business for themselves. They will hold an open house to get more listings and meet buyers who may become their clients. It is a fact that the first people to attend an open house are neighbors thinking about listing their house. Buyers are usually in the initial stages of looking and are not ready to buy, and are not committed to an agent yet. That's why neighbors and future buyers are great prospects for agents, but of little value to you.

It is quite common for buyers who call a real estate office to be steered to another house. The agent answering the phone handles the caller as a prospective client, not a buyer for your house. Most sellers never call the phone number on the real estate company's sign pretending to be a buyer. If they did, most would be in for a shock. Under the For Sale By Owner Homes program, all buyer calls are directed to you.

More "For Sale By Owner" MLS advantages

If you list your home under a standard 6% listing contract, you pay the entire 6%, regardless of who procured a buyer. Even if your friend buys your home, the Agent gets 6%. It doesn't matter if the Agent did nothing (except maybe put his sign in the yard, hold an open house, and enter the property in MLS).

If you actually read the typical 6% listing contract (which most people don't), and understand it, you would know how ridiculously one-sided it is. You as the seller have all kinds of obligations, but the agent isn't obligated to do much of anything.

Some typical clauses: If you want to cancel your listing early to list with another agent, you owe the entire commission. If you lease your home during the listing term, even if it's to your grandmother – you owe the entire commission.

When you list your home with our For Sale By Owner MLS program, you are in control and can cancel any time.

Why having your For Sale By Owner home in MLS is vital

MLS stands for "Multiple Listing Service", and over 95% of all properties sold in the US are as a result of MLS listing exposure. When people refer to a property being "on the market", they mean it is listed in MLS.

Almost all buyers who are browsing for homes online are browsing one of the thousands of websites that display MLS listings. Buyers like choose from lists of multiple properties, and they like to compare. There is no database of homes online that's bigger than MLS. That's the reason MLS listed homes will sell for the most money in the shortest time possible.

If you want to sell your home as a for sale by owner because you want to maintain control and save commissions, you can do that and still have the exposure of MLS.

More about the "MLS"

There are three common misconceptions about MLS. The first is that it is one huge national database. There are actually over a thousand individual local MLSs across the country. A Agent has to join the local MLS to have access to the information in that MLS. Being a member of one MLS doesn't automatically provide a Agent access to other MLSs. Each local MLS periodically feeds their data to Realtor.com® and thousands of other public websites.

The second misconception is that anybody can look at the MLS listing online. Actually, there is a lot of information that only local agents can see in the listing that is not available for public view. For example, commission rate offered to a buyer's agent and seller phone numbers can only be seen by agents, and are not displayed on public websites like Realtor.com®.

The third most common misconception is that you don't need an agent to get on MLS, and that it is like placing an ad in the newspaper. Actually the MLS was created by agents to share their listings to make a more efficient system for buyers and sellers. Only a licensed agent can list your home in MLS. When you list you home for a flat fee with our For Sale By Owner Homes MLS system, you will be listed by a licensed agent who is a member of your local MLS.

For Sale By Owner MLS recommended commissions

The listing commission is eliminated when you list your For Sale By Owner home with us. You still need to offer a commission to other agents to encourage them to bring you their buyers. The amount you offer is up to you. We recommend that you offer the commission that the local agents would be getting with competing homes in your area.

The optimum commission to offer varies from 2% to 3%, depending on the local market and the home value. In California, where prices average $800,000, a commission of 2% to 2.5% is common. In Texas, where an average home is $200,000, agents will try to avoid showing your home if you only offer 2%.

Before ever offering more than 3%, reduce the price instead. The lower the price, the more likely it will be selected by buyers who are browsing online. All you want is for the agent to show it; the buyer decides what house they want to make an offer on.

Some startling facts about agents

The median income of the million plus real estate agents in this country is over $50,000 per year. Only 12% of their work time is spent on serving their clients. The rest of their time is spent on prospecting for new clients.

The typical home seller has to work 10 times as many hours as the Agent to make the same amount of money the Agent makes on the commission.

One of the nation's top anti-trust lawyers wrote a complete report for the Dept of Justice about these kinds things that the 6% Agents wouldn't want you to know Read complete report