New Start-up Rewards House Hunters Who Do Their Own Legwork

• July 15th 2013

by Shilpi Paul

The internet has made home buying much easier. Now, house hunters can search for homes, research comparable listings and even choose their selection before needing the assistance of a real estate agent. Now, one start-up is trying to reward buyers for the legwork that they do.

Jason’s House is a website where actively involved, DIY-type home buyers can negotiate with agents to try and receive a monetary value for their hard work.

Here’s how it works: a potential buyer fills out a profile on the site, inputting the steps they’ve already taken in the process and asking for specific services that they still need from an agent, like acting as a representative during the transaction, advice, negotiating, etc.

From there, agents affiliated with the site have seven days to submit bids to the buyers, offering some portion of their commission back to the buyer as a rebate based on the work the buyer has already done. For example, on a house costing $400,000, an agent who decides to offer 36 percent of a three percent commission back to an active buyer is willing to give back $2,160.

The buyer can also sift through the offers and the agent profiles to choose the best offer and best agent. (Agent profiles come with reviews and experience.) The website is quite new, and just launched in the greater Houston area.

Readers, do you think this idea would take off in DC?

This article originally published at https://dc.urbanturf.com/articles/blog/new_start-up_rewards_house_hunters_who_do_their_own_legwork/7318.