There were a few other For Sale By Owner companies who partnered with other brokerages in other areas of Ontario and they did not list their properties on the Toronto Real Estate Board. These other brokerages also attempted post homes located in other Provinces. Recently these brokerages have received notice to remove listings from MLS if the listings are not located in the Province where the brokerage is located. The Toronto Star reported that that these brokerages have received direction to remove listings in Alberta, PEI, and Quebec. The Globe and Mail reported that one real estate brokerage received a $50,000 fine for advertising listings in Quebec.

Traditionally, brokerages have only been allowed to post listings in the province where they are located. PropertySold.ca allows our customers to post their listing on MLS through our partner’s brokerages. All listings will appear on Realtor.ca and also be posting on the Toronto Real Estate Board’s MLS system. We also have partnerships with other brokerages who a registered in other Provinces. For example, if you want to sell your home For Sale By Owner in Vancouver, you will be able to subscribe to sell your home on PropertySold.ca and also post on Realtor.ca through a local agent in Vancouver. The Vancouver agent will post your home on their local MLS real estate board system.

PropertySold.ca launched our new website last month and a significant number of our For Sale By Owner sellers are choosing to sell their home privately and also be listed on MLS. The MLS listing will show a front photo of the home for sale, plus the basic listing information including price, address, lot size, as well as a description that directs the buyers to find more information about the property for sale on the Realtor’s website. The home for sale on MLS will be shown on the MLS map as well as in the search results. More photos and information can be found on the PropertySold.ca real estate listing website.

The benefits of listing on MLS and being listed on PropertySold.ca as a For Sale by Owner listing is that buyers searching on MLS without an agent will be able to find the seller’s property and contact the seller directly. If the buyer has an agent and wants to use an agent to aide in the contract negotiations for the property, the seller can negotiate a commission with the agent if desired. Sellers can save thousands on Real Estate Commissions, plus get MLS exposure for their property for sale. Buyers can easily find homes for sale by searching on Google, PropertySold.ca or on MLS.ca.

PropertySold.ca

The findings fly in the face of what real estate agents have often touted as their greatest warning: that DIY home sellers are risking not getting the best price for their home. The study shows For Sale by Owner sellers got ‘at least as much’ as those who used the services of an agent and MLS listings.

In fact, FSBO sellers ended up with a much fatter bottom line, thanks to the savings of agent fees, typically six per cent of the sale price, or $12,000 for a $200,000 home.

“Our results are good news for buyers,” says the study’s co-author François Ortalo-Magné. “The price buyers pay appears to be driven entirely by the characteristics of the property and of the seller. Whether the property is sold through FSBOMadison.com or a realtor appears to make little difference in terms of purchase price.”

While the study’s scope was limited to the Madison community, it underscores the striking results recently noted in PropertySold client sales (see our June 13th entry)– that they are well above national MLS sales prices, as listed by the Canadian Realtors Association.

This means FSBO homeowners on PropertySold are not only pocketing thousands of dollars in agents fees, they are also getting up to 13% more for their homes, increasing their total profits by nearly 20 per cent — which can add up to a staggering figure at today’s market prices.

So how is it that inexperienced homeowners can match seasoned professional agents when it comes to the bottom line? One reason suggested by the study’s authors, is that FSBO sellers tend to take their time in selling their homes, and without an agent pressuring to sell, they are better prepared to wait for the best price.

For more information, check out the press release on the study, or the full study report; you can also listen to one of the study’s co-authors discuss their findings.