Finding a home using a smartphone isn’t exactly a new experience. Real estate websites like Zillow have been offering mobile apps and experiences for years.
In fact, the National Association of Realtors recently revealed that about three-quarters of buyers reported finding their homes using their phones.
But a newly launched website offers users something that Zillow and others like it can’t: cold, hard cash.
Web-based real estate company Forsalebyweb.com has launched a digital real estate buying and selling platform that pays homebuyers back for using the platform to buy a house.
Specifically, Forsalebyweb.com pays the full buyer’s agent commission amount directly to the buyer. So, instead of paying an agent to represent them, users of the platform get to keep that money for themselves.
“We’ve been looking at how to automate real-estate sales for more than a decade but the smartphone has now given us the tool we need to eliminate the enormous consumer confusion—and cost—surrounding agent commissions,” said Kosol Sek, founder and CEO.
Forsalebyweb.com allows consumers with a mobile device or internet access to search all homes on their own time, but unlike other real estate sites, Forsalebyweb.com offers all commission back to users.
Buyers and sellers pay only a “nominal set fee” for showings.
Forsalebyweb.com says it plans to make the smartphone shopping nationally accessible and partner with real estate agents and brokers who “share the company’s vision.”
According to Sek, users of the platform could end up getting thousands of dollars back when buying a home.
“When a home buyer finds a $300,000 home they want on a smartphone, all commissions could amount to as much as $9,000. Our model means the commission is returned to the buyer. Even greater savings can be realized by sellers. All buyers or sellers need is a smartphone or internet access,” Sek said.
