A new company is offering homeowners a new way to sell their home. SellerNation, a Detroit-based company, combines the urgency of a real estate auction with the expertise of real estate brokers to speed up the home-selling process.
“This new brokerage is a hybrid of the best of real estate auctions and the best practices of real estate brokers – the perfect combination,” says CEO Rod Carey.
“Real estate auctions are great because everyone knows what day a property is going to sell,” says Ron Jasgur, SellerNation president. “They level the playing field and create a sense of urgency in the marketplace.”’
What makes SellerNation different is its 34-day listing agreements. The company also contributes 5% of its revenues to local non-profit organizations.
SellerNation does not take on buyers as clients. It focuses solely on sellers and provides transparency throughout the sales process, making it “ideal in cases like divorce, estate sales, and probate situations where it could be difficult to keep multiple parties on opposing sides on the same page.”
SellerNation also does not charge sellers a commission. Instead, the company adds a 5% buyer premium to an accepted bid. A common element of auctions, it’s also becoming a trend among traditional home sales. The National Association of Realtors’ 2013 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers revealed that 13% of homebuyers compensated the Realtors in whole or in part.
“Everything we do is designed to make our listings attractive to multiple buyers, because competition is what drives price,” says Jasgur. “We’re literally built to negotiate with multiple parties to get the best possible deal for the seller. We’ve seen over and over again that the first offer is rarely the best.”
