tailieunhanh - The Relative Performance of Real Estate Marketing Platforms: MLS versus FSBOMadison.com

A large proportion of real estate transactions are carried out with the help of real estate These agents provide expertise (on pricing, preparing a property for sale, and bargaining) and convenience (by showing the property, advertising and holding open houses, and taking care of paperwork). One advantage of working with an agent who is a realtor is access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), a database that compiles information on all properties listed by local realtors. Typically, realtors charge a commission of around 6 percent. The advent of the Internet has affected many markets. The real estate market is one of them. Direct marketing has always. | American Economic Review 2009 99 5 1878-1898 http doi The Relative Performance of Real Estate Marketing Platforms MLS versus By Igal Hendel Aviv Nevo and Francois Ortalo-Magné We compare house sales on a For-Sale-By-Owner FSBO platform to Multiple Listing Service MLS sales and find that FSBO precommission prices are no lower but that FSBO is less effective in terms of time to sell and probability of a sale. We do not find direct evidence of the importance of network size as a reason for the lower effectiveness of FSBO. We do find evidence of endogenous platform differentiation patient sellers use FSBO while patient buyers transact more often on the MLS where they avoid patient sellers . We discuss the implications for platform competition two-sided markets and welfare. JEL L85 M31 R31 A large proportion of real estate transactions are carried out with the help of real estate These agents provide expertise on pricing preparing a property for sale and bargaining and convenience by showing the property advertising and holding open houses and taking care of paperwork . One advantage of working with an agent who is a realtor is access to the Multiple Listing Service MLS a database that compiles information on all properties listed by local realtors. Typically realtors charge a commission of around 6 percent. The advent of the Internet has affected many markets. The real estate market is one of them. Direct marketing has always been possible using newspapers flyers and other forms of advertising but today the Internet offers a cheaper and potentially more effective platform to facilitate direct by owner marketing. Sellers can post detailed information and pictures along with virtual tours. For-sale-by-owner FSBO Web sites provide an alternative platform or two-sided network to compete with the MLS network. We study the performance of these two competing platforms the MLS the established platform .