Oct 23
The best real estate site
In one of my recent night classes, a student asked me this question: “What’s the best real estate website?”
I had my opinions, but instead of answering her, I assigned the class a weekend project: do a little online research and tell me. They were told to compare styles, advertising, word-of-mouth familiarity and their own personal experience. Yesterday, we discussed their results.
The most interesting response was from a young guy who’s around 22. He approached the assignment by searching for how many sites claim to be the best. Check this out:
Realtor.com: “the #1 most visited homes-for-sale site, with more than 6 million consumers visiting each month”
Microsoft: “MSN® HomeAdvisorTM online home and real estate guide has surpassed Realtor.com as the most-visited home and real estate site on the Web”
Among FSBO sites, it’s even worse:
Owners.com: the “Largest ‘For Sale By Owner’ Marketplace”
Byowner.com: “the nation’s #1 Web based no commission home selling solution”
FSBO.net: “We have combined with HomesByOwner.com to provide the leading, locally
focused For Sale By Owner homes internet site.”
So there you have it. A lot of claims, a lot of hype… but do they deliver? Only one website has satisfied me: www.buyowner.com. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Buy Owner is the single FSBO company for which I have no complaints. Buy Owner gave me no problems and exceeded my expectations. If you’re thinking about going with a FSBO company, please check out my post on How to choose a FSBO and the culminating entry about my experience with Buy owner: here.
October 24th, 2007 at 7:25 am
We’ve been with BuyOwner since June. They definitely deliver on everything they promise. They also take the pain out of all of the services a FSBO would worry about: marketing and documentation. They market, they pre-screen buyers, they can provide financing to a prospective buyer, and they arrange the closing and all document preparation once an offer is accepted. The tools on their website are also fairly intuitive and easy to use.
October 24th, 2007 at 2:25 pm
Eric, we are definitely on the same page. Thanks for your comment and for visiting!
August 1st, 2010 at 11:53 pm
Hi!
Thanks for providing some great information on the topic from your expertise.
I am saving your website and will definitely check back sometimes.