Web sites cater to for-sale-by-owner home sellers The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Selling a adroit in without a real estate agent can save thousands of dollars in commission fees, but it can also be a painstaking, confusing struggle.
Foregoing an agent, however, is easier these days thanks to Web sites that help homeowners advertise their properties on the hottest legitimate 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 exact to supplant every service a real estate agent provides, but they and others come close to giving a seller's familiar with 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 undoubtedly 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 purchaser 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 peculiarity last year was $153,000, while it was $211,000 for sellers who used an agent, according to the National Association of Realtors.
