Consumers looking for low selling costs are rising and it may mean realtors have to change the way they do business. Here is an interesting article:
Real Estate: Discounters are alive and well
If realtors are trying to put Randy Calhoun out of business, he has yet to feel the heat.Calhoun, who runs a service that helps homeowners sell without a full-service real estate agent says listings and revenue for his company have risen 40 percent in the past year. “Our business is up everywhere,” says Calhoun, who operates FSBOadvertisingservice.com in 42 states.
Calhoun has plenty of company. Across the country, discounters are multiplying and thriving.
And they’re doing so despite an ever more forceful resistance from realtors, who have stepped their lobbying for local rules and state laws that would significantly curtail the effectiveness of listing your home without a full-service agent.
At the heart of the issue is a fight over how much individuals should have to pay to sell a house. Full-service agents charge sellers a 6-percent commission, and those fees can run well into the thousands of dollars. That buys a home seller everything from listings to open houses to help with negotiations at closing time. Those are useful services.
Read full article: http://biz.yahoo.com/hmoney/060806/080306_discounters_moneymag.html