LAKE RIDGE, Va. — As a National Association of Realtors settlement brings the debate over real estate agent fees to the forefront, a new service launching in Virginia would take real estate agents out of the picture.
Lake Ridge resident Rebekah Skogsberg’s platform, Aloha My Home, launched Friday and offers buyers and sellers the tools to complete a home sale. It covers everything from pre-purchase education to scheduling showings, making an offer and closing the deal. Aloha My Home charges a flat fee of $995 to close a home sale, potentially saving tens of thousands of dollars by not using a real estate agent. The platform fee does not include other fees paid to lenders, lawyers and recordal companies.
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“The goal is to have it be a direct transaction between buyer and seller, which is why we call it for sale by owner,” Skogsberg told Patch. “Ultimately, I think the trend in the market is to eliminate real estate agents.”
Skogsberg was working for Mars and enduring an hour-long commute, but he was inspired to find another way to make a living. The book “Rich Dad Poor Dad,” which focuses on how passive income from real estate investing and running a business can help people achieve financial abundance, inspired him to quit his job and become an entrepreneur.
She and her mother started investing in real estate, got their real estate licenses, and over the course of three and a half years acquired 29 rental properties and flipped nine homes. Along the way, Skogsberg realized she wanted to work on automating the real estate process.
“We were doing a lot of transactions, but I was scattered. I was doing a lot of emails with lenders, appraisers, inspectors, buyers, sellers. It was a very scattered and disjointed process,” Skogsberg said. “So I started thinking about how to automate it and make it cheaper, because the reason I got my license in the first place was because the real estate commissions were so high, and even after about nine months of doing labor-intensive real estate sales, the commissions were sometimes more than I was making.”
The name “Aloha My Home” means both sides of home selling: “hello” for buyers and “goodbye” for sellers. After six years of working on Aloha My Home, Skogsberg and her development team are ready to launch the platform ahead of Memorial Day weekend. The platform is under contract to handle real estate transactions in Virginia, but Skogsberg hopes to launch in other states in the future.
Skogsberg decided to open the platform to the general public, not just real estate investors, so people could educate themselves about the real estate process. She recalled that when she worked as a real estate agent, she helped clients who weren’t sure what questions to ask when searching for a home to buy. She said there were also times when buyers found a home on their own and wondered if they needed help with the rest of the transaction.
“We want to empower people to make their own decisions when it comes to real estate transactions. We want to inform them of their options and help them determine what to do when it comes to their real estate transaction,” Skogsberg said.
Aloha My Home can be thought of as “the next step in Zillow,” according to Skogsberg. The platform will start with “direct-from-owner” listings in Virginia, where buyers can schedule viewings and make offers. Sellers will be able to review offers, and Skogsberg said the platform will launch tools to let sellers compare offers.
“We also work with real estate companies in almost every state that are taking online payments,” Skogsberg said, “so we’re integrating with that company and then at some point we’ll work with other affiliates — lenders, inspectors, appraisers — all the people involved in the transaction.”
Another important part of the process happens before buyers start looking for a home and sellers start selling their home. Skogsberg has prepared a checklist in the library section of tasks that buyers and sellers should complete before starting the process.
“I had different sections and I basically sat down and thought about what I wish I’d known or what I wish I’d known when I first got into real estate,” Skogsberg said, “Then I wrote down notes about how interest rates affect your ability to buy a home and how much of a difference a 0.25% interest rate can make. I really broke it down so that an 18-year-old or so can understand the transaction and make their own decision, because everyone needs a place to live.”
For buyers, the pre-offer process includes determining how much you can afford, estimating down payment and closing costs, improving your credit score, and finding a mortgage lender. The offer section outlines the various areas buyers want to know about, including earnest money, terms, and negotiating an offer. The final section for buyers includes the steps to complete the purchase, including submitting an earnest money deposit, obtaining title insurance, obtaining homeowners insurance, and settlement.
Skogsberg’s mother still works as a real estate agent, and he says now is the perfect time to launch a new real estate technology. The National Association of Realtors settlement announced in March will set new standards for how real estate agent commissions are offered. Skogsberg believes real estate commissions will fall because sellers may not be willing to pay both buyer’s and seller’s agent fees. If buyer’s agent fees are imposed on buyers, buyers may look for alternative ways to pay these fees.
“There’s so much ambiguity and uncertainty in the real estate market, even among real estate agents,” Skogsberg said, “and this new settlement opens the door for Aloha My Home to new technology. [National Association of Realtors]In the past, it was a very male-dominated society and competitors were not welcomed, so the barrier to entry for new technologies was low.”
Aloha My Home will initially operate in Virginia, but may expand in the future as the real estate companies it partners with are national. Skogsberg is in discussions with attorneys who have partners or affiliates in other states. While the bulk of a real estate transaction is the same in most states, parts such as proration terms, contingencies and disclosures may vary by state, Skogsberg said.
Skogsberg is most excited about helping people make their own real estate decisions.
“This is what keeps me going and what has kept me going for six years,” Skogsberg says. “It’s a very expensive hobby project that I do in the middle of my life. In the evenings and on weekends, while others are rock climbing or riding their bikes, I’m working on Aloha My Home.”
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