Replacing the Real Estate Agent With A Website

Selling a home without a real estate agent can save thousands
of dollars in commission fees, but it can also be a painstaking,
confusing task.

Foregoing an agent, however, is easier these days thanks to Web
sites that help homeowners advertise their properties on the hottest
real estate portals and even walk them through figuring out how to
price their home to sell.

Sites such as ForSaleByOwner.com, Owners.com and Fizber.com
don't claim to supplant every service a real estate agent provides,
but they and others come close to giving a seller's home the same
online exposure as one that's marketed by an agent.

That kind of access comes at a price, often in the hundreds of
dollars, and probably means the seller must settle for saving
only half of the 6 percent cut of the sale that traditionally would
be split between the agents for the buyer and seller.

On a $300,000 sale, that's $9,000. Not too shabby.

Still, the median sale price for a for-sale-by-owner property last
year was $153,000, while it was $211,000 for sellers who used
an agent, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Homeowners who sell their property on their own may not always
tap the pool of buyers that an agent can in the open market, which
could reduce the range of offers. Another factor is that, in many
cases, for-sale-by-owner transactions are between people who
knew each other in advance, such as family or acquaintances,
which could also lead to a below-market price.

That hasn't dissuaded many sellers from going it alone, however.