A high-profile Dallas mortgage broker is raising Realtors’ hackles with its program to help homeowners sell their houses without agents.
Reliance Mortgage Co. is just starting to promote its “For Sale By Owner Assistance Program” in Dallas-Fort Worth.
For a set fee, the mortgage brokerage firm will provide home sellers with a marketing program that includes everything from yard signs to sales forms.
“Our motivation is to get loan business,” said Reliance Mortgage president Mike Anderson, who is starting to promote the program on his company’s weekend radio show. “We see this as a great way to help home sellers, at the same time we offer our mortgage products.”
Of course, not everyone is enthusiastic about the plan.
“The real estate agents don’t care for it, I can tell you that,” Anderson said. “We’ve had some calls from people not liking what we are doing.”
Traditionally, mortgage brokers have not participated in home sales listings but have relied on referrals from real estate agents and advertising to get their customers and provide home loans.
But the lines separating the various parts of the residential real estate business have blurred in recent years, with real estate sales firms getting into the mortgage business and mortgage companies expanding, too.
“There is a pitched battle going on between the real estate agents and the mortgage companies,” Anderson said.
Armed with nationwide statistics that suggest that as many as a third of home sales are done without agents, Reliance Mortgage hopes to take advantage of the tight real estate market in the Dallas area.
The company plans to market its for-sale-by-owner home listings with an Internet Web site and telephone database.
“There are always going to be a number of people who want to sell their homes themselves, and we intend to help them,” Anderson said.
Loans could be done with either the buyer of the property or with the seller in a new home, he said.
Reliance Mortgage is also setting up a real estate agent referral service to help sellers who ultimately decide they need Realtors to market their homes.
“The mortgage banking industry has a strategic plan to capture the home buyer and seller,” real estate consultant Michael Ableson said. “As you can imagine, the real estate agents aren’t real happy with them.
“Consumers need to know that if they hire a good agent, it’s definitely worth the money,” he said.
