Category: Press Releases

The Nation’s Leading DIY Real-Estate Site Reveals Top Markets for “By Owner” Listings

CHICAGO, Jul 01, 2015 (BUSINESS WIRE) — With the July 4th holiday – the midpoint of the home-buying season – around the corner, more homeowners than ever before have declared their independence and sold their most-valuable asset themselves via ForSaleByOwner.com, the nation’s leading provider of self-directed real-estate sales.

ForSaleByOwner.com today revealed that the total number of new listings on the site increased 5 percent in the first six months of 2015 versus the comparable period in 2014, with a home sold an average of every 52 minutes.1 During the same timeframe, the average value of homes sold through ForSaleByOwner.com increased 3.1 percent over the same period last year, from $250,699 to $258,567.2

“We saw more homeowners than ever before choosing to sell their homes themselves, empowered by the easy-to-use tools that ForSaleByOwner.com provides,” said Lisa Edwards, director of marketing for ForSaleByOwner.com. “Homeowners who use a service like ForSaleByOwner.com reap the benefit of lowering or eliminating significant fees associated with the cost of using an agent. For instance, a homeowner who sells their home for $300,000 can save on average $18,000 in real estate agent fees – significant savings that can be applied toward education, retirement or purchasing their next home.”

With the 2015 home-selling season at the mid-point, ForSaleByOwner.com today also revealed its list of the top 10 defined metropolitan areas (DMAs) with the most “by owner” listings. According to data from ForSaleByOwner.com, the top 10 DMAs accounted for nearly 26 percent of all ForSaleByOwner.com home listings and include:3

1. New York
2. Chicago
3. Dallas-Ft. Worth
4. Detroit
5. Atlanta
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Philadelphia
8. Lafayette, LA
9. Cleveland
10. Tampa-St. Petersburg, FL

About ForSaleByOwner.com

Backed by Tribune Publishing TPUB, ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s leading “by owner” real-estate site, providing consumers with all resources needed to sell and buy properties on their own. By offering a wide variety of listing packages, advertising services, tools and resources to fit any budget, ForSaleByOwner.com empowers consumers to make smarter, more-informed decisions. ForSaleByOwner.com launched in 1999 as one of the first players in the DIY real-estate market. Today, the company is the largest entity in the category, with five times the number of monthly unique visitors of its closest competitor.

1 Based on ForSaleByOwner.com H1 2015 customer exit survey data.
2 Based on ForSaleByOwner.com H1 2015 customer exit survey data.
3 Based on ForSaleByOwner.com H1 2015 purchase data.

(TPUB-C)

ForSaleByOwner.com, the Nation’s Leading DIY Real-Estate Site, Sees Surge In Pre-Season Seller Traffic

CHICAGO – April 1, 2015 — The home-selling season kicks off in earnest today with newly released data from ForSaleByOwner.com, the nation’s leading provider of self-directed real-estate sales, indicating 2015 could be the biggest year yet for the category.

In the first three months of 2015, seller traffic to ForSaleByOwner.com was up more than 200 percent over the comparable period in 2014, reflecting increased interest among homeowners who seek to sell their most-valuable asset themselves¹. Additionally, ForSaleByOwner.com noted that the average value of homes sold in the first quarter of 2015 was up 2.2 percent over the same period last year, from $254,750 to $260,385, which is 11 percent more than the national average for agent-assisted home sales². In all, homeowners who used ForSaleByOwner.com to sell their home collectively saved $28.2 million in real-estate commissions in the first quarter of 2015³.

“As the leading for-sale-by-owner site, ForSaleByOwner.com has direct insight into all aspects of how consumers sell and buy homes nationwide, and we are seeing more homeowners than ever before considering selling their houses on their own,” said Eddie Tyner, Senior Vice President and General Manager of ForSaleByOwner.com, a Tribune Publishing site. “We are in an era of empowered consumers who have more information at their fingertips, allowing them to make informed decisions about how to market and price their homes for maximum return.”

In advance of the kickoff of the 2015 home-selling season, ForSaleByOwner.com also revealed the top 20 states where homeowners successfully sold their homes on their own using the site. According to data from ForSaleByOwner.com, 11 of the top 20 states are in the South, with six of the top 20 in the Midwest, and three in the East, reflecting strong return of the housing markets in those regions.

The top 20 states which accounted for nearly 80 percent of all ForSaleByOwner home sales in 2014 were:

1. Texas
2. Louisiana
3. Florida
4. Illinois
5. Michigan
6. New York
7. Ohio
8. New Jersey
9. Alabama
10. Georgia
11. Indiana
12. Tennessee
13. North Carolina
14. Pennsylvania
15. Kentucky
16. Wisconsin
17. South Carolina
18. Virginia
19. Missouri
20. Arkansas

In the coming months, ForSaleByOwner.com will introduce additional resources to help potential buyers find their perfect homes. The new features will let prospective buyers search not just by home value or number of bedrooms but factors such as school rankings and other community amenities.

Additional industry trends and information are available in ForSaleByOwner.com’s Real Estate Outlook report, available here.

About ForSaleByOwner.com
Backed by Tribune Publishing, ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s leading “by owner” real-estate site, providing consumers with all resources needed to sell and buy properties on their own. By offering a wide variety of listing packages, advertising services, tools and resources to fit any budget, ForSaleByOwner.com empowers consumers to make smarter, more-informed decisions. ForSaleByOwner.com launched in 1999 as one of the first players in the DIY real-estate market. Today, the company is the largest entity in the category, with five times the number of monthly unique visitors of its closest competitor.

About Tribune Publishing
Tribune Publishing Company (NYSE: TPUB) is a diversified media and marketing solutions company that delivers innovative experiences for audiences and advertisers across all platforms. The Company’s diverse portfolio of iconic news and information brands includes 10 award-winning major daily titles, more than 60 digital properties and more than 180 verticals in markets, including Los Angeles; Chicago; South Florida; Orlando; Baltimore; Carroll County and Annapolis, Md.; Hartford, Conn.; Allentown, Pa., and Newport News, Va. Tribune Publishing also offers an array of customized marketing solutions, and operates a number of niche products, including Hoy and El Sentinel, making Tribune Publishing the country’s largest Spanish-language publisher. Tribune Publishing is headquartered in Chicago. For more information, please visit www.tribpub.com.

¹Based on ForSaleByOwner.com internal traffic statistics from Jan. 1 – March 26, 2015.
²Based on ForSaleByOwner.com Q1 2015 customer exit survey data and National Association of Realtors 2014 profile of home buyers and home sellers.
³Based on ForSaleByOwner.com Q1 2015 customer exit survey data using a typical 6 percent agency commission.

(TPUB-C)

Contacts:
Matthew Hutchison
SVP/Communications
Tribune Publishing
312-222-3305
matt.hutchison@tribpub.com

Dana Meyer
Manager/Communications
Tribune Publishing
312-222-3308
dmeyer@tribpub.com

Broker commissions on U.S. home sales dropped 18 percent last year as purchases of foreclosed properties and the recession slashed values, according to ForSaleByOwner.com.

Total commissions were $46.6 billion in 2008, the lowest since 2002 and 34 percent below the peak of $71 billion in 2005, the New York-based online real estate service said in a statement today. The average commission paid on a brokered sale last year was $12,600.

“The cost of paying real estate commissions has clearly been magnified by declining home values,” Greg Healy, vice president of operations at ForSaleByOwner, said in the statement.

Prices in 20 U.S. cities fell 18.5 percent in December from a year earlier, the fastest drop on record, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller index. Sales of previously owned homes, which account for about 90 percent of the market, fell in January to the lowest since 1997, and new-home purchases plunged to the lowest since records began in 1963, the National Association of Realtors and Commerce Department said.

U.S. foreclosure filings exceeded 250,000 for the 10th straight month in January, RealtyTrac Inc. reported, and nonfarm payrolls plunged by 651,000, pushing the unemployment rate to the highest since 1992, according to the Labor Department.

Homeowners in the U.S. West paid the highest commission to sell their property at an average $16,230, according to ForSaleByOwner. Sellers paid $15,500 in the Northeast, $11,050 in the South and $9,540 in the Midwest.

ForSaleByOwner obtained its estimates using the $243,100 average 2008 home sale price from the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors and a 5.2 percent average commission estimated by REAL Trends Inc., a Castle Rock, Colorado-based property research firm, said company spokesman Eric Mangan.

About 75 percent of the 4.9 million U.S. home sales last year were sold through full-service brokerages, Mangan said, citing data from REAL Trends and the Realtors group.

ForSaleByOwner was founded in 1999 and acquired by Chicago- based Tribune Co. in 2006. It helps property owners market their homes without using a broker. It had more than 2 million unique average visitors in 2008, Mangan said.

CHICAGO, Feb. 16, 2010 – With the spring home selling season quickly approaching, ForSaleByOwner.com wants home sellers to know what they should be doing in the weeks and months ahead of putting their home on the market. As the nation’s leading real estate website for “by owner” home sellers, ForSaleByOwner.com today offers its “Five Things to Do Before Putting a Home on the Market” to help home sellers.

“The Internet has made selling a home ‘by owner’ much easier, but sellers still need to do work before putting a home on the market,” explains Greg Healy, Vice President of Operations for ForSaleByOwner.com. “Sellers typically know months ahead of time that they will be selling their home and they should utilize this time to ensure a successful sale. Doing things now like painting and researching the local market will pay huge dividends in getting a home sold later this year.”

 “Five Things to Do Before Putting a Home on the Market”

1.     Decide On a Home Selling Strategy: Sellers can either hire a real estate agent or decide to sell their home “by owner.” Agents do offer some convenience but their commission rates, which average close to 6%, make them expensive for too many sellers. It has become easier to become a “by owner” seller because the Internet offers the same types of advertising, marketing and pricing tools used by agents. The National Association of Realtors found that, on average, a “by owner” seller actually sells quicker and for closer to asking price than an agent-represented seller.

 2.    Start Researching Your Local Home Market: Any home seller can use Internet-based resources to compare their home to recently sold homes and homes that are currently on the market. This research will be invaluable to help a seller correctly price their home. ForSaleByOwner.com also offers an online appraisal service that provides a suggested listing price range.

 3.    Schedule a Home Inspection: A professional home inspection will provide a seller with a comprehensive report on the home’s condition. Not only will the report serve as a guide to help the seller determine what repairs to make, but prospective buyers will have more confidence making an offer because the report will tell them the condition of the house.

 4.    Get Your Home Ready: Now is the time to paint rooms in the house that need a fresh coat of paint and replace worn out carpets to give the home a fresh look. Sellers should also replace old or dated light fixtures and bathroom faucets, as well as rid the home of clutter to make it appear more spacious. Doing all of these things will help sellers get a jump on staging their home once it goes on the market.

 5.    Consult a Real Estate Lawyer: Real estate agents don’t handle the legal paperwork, only a real estate attorney or title company can. Consulting a real estate lawyer now will help “by owner” sellers navigate through any state or local real estate laws. ForSaleByOwner.com also offers state-specific real estate legal forms.

 
About ForSaleByOwner.com

ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s leading “by owner” real estate website. Since 1999, ForSaleByOwner.com has saved home sellers more than one billion dollars by providing premium Internet marketing services, MLS listing services, property pricing reports, real estate guidance and information, downloadable legal forms, as well as live customer support, to help customers independently sell their own homes. The company offers a wide range of listing packages at varying prices that provide advertising, information, tools and resources to empower people to sell their homes themselves. In contrast, a person selling a $300,000 home through a real estate agent would be charged a 6% commission fee and pay approximately $18,000. Prospective homebuyers can browse property database, available at http://www.forsalebyowner.com, at no charge.

CHICAGO, April 12, 2010 – ForSaleByOwner.com, the nation’s leading “by owner” real estate website, today launched a new feature allowing home sellers to market their home with an unlimited amount of photographs. The new “Unlimited Photos” feature, along with an extensive redesign of how photographs are displayed on ForSaleByOwner.com, strengthens a commitment to provide leading online resources for real estate consumers.

“More than 90 percent of homebuyers use the Internet to search for a home and today’s announcement allows home sellers to better showcase their homes to prospective buyers,” said Eddie Tyner, General Manager of ForSaleByOwner.com. “Buyers want to explore homes online and our new Unlimited Photos feature is the perfect way home sellers can attract interested parties to their properties.”

The Unlimited Photos feature is now included as part of ForSaleByOwner.com’s Premium, Silver and Platinum packages, and is available to all other customers for $29.95 who currently are able to upload six photos to their online listing. All ForSaleByOwner.com customers will benefit from a redesign of how photos will be displayed. The redesign includes a new media page with easy to browse, enlarged photos, as well as the ability to add photo titles and captions.

About ForSaleByOwner.com
ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s leading “by owner” real estate website. Since 1999, ForSaleByOwner.com has saved home sellers more than one billion dollars by providing premium Internet marketing services, MLS listing services, property pricing reports, real estate guidance and information, downloadable legal forms, as well as live customer support, to help customers independently sell their own homes. The company offers a wide range of listing packages at varying prices that provide advertising, information, tools and resources to empower people to sell their homes themselves. In contrast, a person selling a $300,000 home through a real estate agent would be charged a 6% commission fee and pay approximately $18,000. Prospective homebuyers can browse property database, available at http://www.forsalebyowner.com, at no charge.

Press Release Source: ForSaleByOwner.com on Tuesday June 29, 2010

CHICAGO–(PR Newswire) —  Sell a condo by owner? Can you do that?

Yes, you can…and it’s easier than you might think. Condo owners are discovering unexpected advantages of selling direct in a difficult market. 
Today, ForSaleByOwner.com launches a new guide to selling and buying condos by owner.  It equips condo owners and buyers with tactics and tips for finding, pricing, marketing and purchasing condos directly from each other.

The ForSaleByOwner.com Condo Guide outlines these top tactics:

• Appraisals are easier when similar units have recently sold to verify the purchase price – removing one barrier plaguing single-family sales.
• Property managers and neighbors are on-site to help with showings for out-of-town owners.
• Condo associations, property managers and densely developed neighborhoods make it easier to spread the word when selling by owner.
• With condo values still sliding in many markets, eliminating the sell-side commission may be the only hope an owner has of retaining any equity.
These dynamics helped former Milwaukee resident Jason Fisher sell his two-bedroom condo in just six weeks.

Career demands prompted his move to Florida. Meanwhile, the condo that had been so appealing in 2005 was now just one of many on the glutted downtown Milwaukee market.
A listing with ForSaleByOwner.com quickly drew interest. Neighbors helped show the unit when Fisher was in Florida arranging his move.  The eventual buyer looked at several units in the building. She decided on Fisher’s because it was easy to validate the upgrades and better location of his unit when she did an apples-to-apples comparison.
And without a sell-side commission, Fisher extracted the equity he’d put in.

He purchased the unit for $178,800 in 2005 and sold it for $175,000 in 2010.  “I considered it a wash because I didn’t have to pay an agent’s commission,” said Fisher.
“Condo owners can leverage these hidden advantages to price and market their units for a prompt, profitable sale,” says Joanne Cleaver, senior content producer for ForSaleByOwner.com.  “Selling by owner gives them flexibility in negotiations and credibility in a cluttered market.”

About ForSaleByOwner.com

ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s leading “by owner” real estate website. Since 1999, ForSaleByOwner.com has saved home sellers more than one billion dollars by coaching and equipping them with information, tools and services that enable them to buy and sell houses directly.

By selling directly, homeowners can control costs and fees, recouping their home equity. The company offers a wide range of listing packages at varying prices that provide advertising, information, tools and resources to empower people to sell their homes themselves. A homeowner selling a $300,000 home through a real estate agent would be charged a 6% commission and pay approximately $18,000, plus additional fees.
 
ForSaleByOwner was acquired in 2006 by Tribune Interactive and is based in Chicago.

CHICAGO, March 23, 2011  — No matter where you are, there’s a house listed with ForSaleByOwner.com nearby. Now, househunters can get the inside scoop on those houses in an instant with the new ForSaleByOwner.com iPhone app.

“Today’s buyers want details about a house immediately.  They don’t want to wait to get back to their computers – and why should they?” says Eddie Tyner, ForSaleByOwner.com general manager. “The new ForSaleByOwner.com mobile app lets buyers see interior photos, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the price, and the seller’s contact information.  The mobile app allows buyers and sellers to directly connect, faster.”

Searching from where you are at the moment, or by city and state, the ForSaleByOwner.com mobile app shows you all the nearby ForSaleByOwner.com listings.  Color-coded to highlight open houses, new listings, houses with price reductions and houses already under contract, the app makes it a snap to plan an efficient househunting itinerary.

The ForSaleByOwner.com mobile app also makes it easy to manage the sometimes-tedious process of scheduling and seeing properties.  Users can:

* Get driving directions to the properties via Google maps
* Keep a ‘short list’ of favorites and get updates when the price changes
* See what houses are available versus under contract
* Get feedback from friends via Facebook, Twitter and email

The ForSaleByOwner.com mobile app is available online via Apple’s iTunes store at no charge. Additional information about the functionality of the app is at ForSaleByOwner’s Education section FAQ.

About ForSaleByOwner.com

ForSaleByOwner.com is the nation’s largest and most robust “by owner” real estate website. In 2010 alone, ForSaleByOwner.com facilitated sales of $1.8 billion worth of residential real estate, enabling homeowners to keep at least $72 million* in home equity for themselves.

Since 1999, ForSaleByOwner.com has saved home sellers more than one billion dollars by coaching and equipping them with information, tools and services that enable them to buy and sell houses directly.

By selling directly, homeowners can recoup more of their home equity by controlling transaction fees. The company offers a wide range of listing packages at varying prices that provide advertising, information, tools and resources to empower people to sell their homes themselves.
A homeowner selling a $300,000 home through a full service real estate agent would lose $18,000 in equity, based on the traditional 6% commission.

ForSaleByOwner.com was acquired in 2006 by Tribune Digital, a division of Tribune Companies, and is based in Chicago.

*Based on some home sellers paying a 2% commission to the agent representing the buyers of their homes. The traditional real estate commission is 6%.

Media Contacts:
Zeno Group
Leah Rosenfeld
Leah.Rosenfeld@zenogroup.com
O: 312-396-9766

ForSaleByOwner.com
Mercedes Carlton
mecarlton@tribune.com
O: 312-527-8526