One of the most common misconceptions that people have about Homie is that we are a For Sale by Owner (FSBO) platform. To be clear, the humble beginnings of Homie were different than what we do today. Homie isn’t a DIY or FSBO platform real estate platform. We employ licensed real estate agents to help home buyers and sellers through every step of the transaction AND allow them to save thousands!
Homie really does everything traditional listing agents do, but we do it for a low fee. Here’s what else you should know about the difference between FSBO and Homie when it comes to selling your home.
FSBO
If you want to sell a home on your own, we applaud you for trying to save all that money on commissions! In fact, one of the reasons Homie was founded was because we realized that home buyers and sellers naturally do a lot of the work on their own. Homie was created because we found out that consumers want control of the transaction but don’t necessarily want to do all the heavy lifting on their own. In addition to more control within a transaction, no one wants to pay fat 6% commissions. With Homie you get a dedicated local agent, a low fee to sell, and more control and transparency in the process. Who said you can’t have your cake and eat it too?
Contracts
A lot of the time people are looking for assistance in the most complex part of selling: legal. In fact, the National Association for REALTORS® states that paperwork accounts for 12% of difficult tasks that FSBOs have to do.
Contracts can be daunting, and legalease can be intimidating. That’s why we have licensed agents AND real estate attorneys to help you. Where you might lack a bit of information is how to list (how do you even do that?), where to list (the MLS is unavailable), and all the contracts that come with home selling (everyone’s least favorite part, unless you’re a lawyer).
The MLS
In order to sell your home quickly and for top dollar, you need the maximum amount of people to see your home for sale. You have to be a licensed real estate agent in order to list a home on the MLS. The MLS is where agents go to find homes that their clients are interested in buying. If you can’t list your home on the MLS, you will miss out on a lot of potential buyers! This is the main reason why a lot of sellers who try to sell on their own end up hiring an agent in the end.
Scheduling tours
If you are selling on your own, you’ll likely be coordinating with dozens of real estate agents to schedule tours of your home. You’ll receive texts, emails, or calls. Oftentimes, sellers find this a bit overwhelming because they’re doing everything. Contracts, packing, and scheduling tours; you better be a pro juggler!
Welcome to the cold call sales list
When a home is listed for sale by owner, the owner’s information makes it onto a lists that get sold to traditional real estate agents. Real estate agents will call the list of savvy FSBOs to find new listings to represent. These sales calls are extremely frustrating to sellers who chose not to use an agent in the first place. We aren’t talking a couple of calls, you may receive dozens of calls throughout the day trying to convince you to list with them. (Here’s an easier way, just list with Homie.)
Homie
Homie is the new way to sell a home. We think high commissions should be in the history books. That’s why we created a simple platform combined with dedicated local agents to do all that work at the lowest cost possible. With us, you get a dedicated agent and team of experts and attorneys who are here to help you with the entire selling process. What you don’t get is that huge 3% listing agent commission. That means, on average, our sellers save $10,000. That’s big money.
Contracts
Like we mentioned above, we have attorneys on staff. They help our agents and sellers look over contracts and make sure everything is up to par. It’s seriously the easiest way to deal with anything legal, and it’s included in our low fee.
Scheduling tours
One of the many benefits of using the Homie platform is ease of booking tours. You wait for a tour request, take a look at the suggested times, and then you can either accept or reschedule. This is all done on your phone or computer. Easy peasy. No juggling required.
The MLS
We are a licensed real estate brokerage. Each of our agents is a licensed agent and REALTOR®. We list every home on the MLS (unless our seller would prefer not to). We believe this gives our seller’s homes the max visibility to buyers. We also list on our website, each major real estate website, AND we post each listing on social media. The more eyes on your home, the better. You’ll have a Seller Dashboard that shows you all the people you are reaching through Homie’s specialized marketing. We’ll search far and wide to find a buyer who best suits your home. At the end of the day you want to sell your home fast and for top dollar, and that’s the Homie promise.
Homie is the new way to sell your home
If you are thinking about FSBO or aren’t having success selling on your own, Homie is your best bet. You get everything you would with a traditional agent without the massive listing commissions. Keep more of your equity. Get the legal and negotiation support you need. We’d be delighted to help you out with the entire selling process, from start to finish. Get started.