Sawbuck Realty Website Serves 1,000,000th Listing
Consumers Embrace Online Broker’s Unique Business Model
WASHINGTON, DC — June 11, 2008 — Online real estate broker Sawbuck Realty (www.sawbuckrealty.com) announced today that consumers have viewed over 1,000,000 listings on its website since the company launched on January 30th. Sawbuck's site has quickly become a top destination for home searches in the Washington DC Metro area. And buyers are catching on to Sawbuck's unique offering as well, producing dozens of closings, contracts and active buyers with the company's network of top local agents. Each buyer saves thousands of dollars with Sawbuck's below-market mortgage and "no fee" settlement.
"We're excited at how quickly we've been embraced by the DC area," Sawbuck co-founder Steve Barnes said. "Our site puts consumers in the driver's seat – allowing them to conduct a home search with complete access to all the critical MLS data, including active listings, contracts and recent sales."
Unique among online real estate companies, Sawbuck combines sophisticated technology with access to some of the region's best local buyer's agents. "We strongly believe in the benefits of great local agents," said Barnes. "Our goal is to match each buyer to a top agent, then save them some money along the way."
Among the first to buy a home using Sawbuck were Heather and Jeff Westphal, who recently closed on a new house in Alexandria, VA. The Westphals saved an estimated $5,572 at closing and will save thousands more with their below-market interest rate. "We were very pleased with the cost savings," said Ms. Westphal. "We got a lower interest rate than we expected, and saved thousands in closing costs."
In addition, Sawbuck connected them with a local real estate team ranked among the top 10 in the country by the Wall Street Journal. "We were thrilled with Sawbuck's partner in our area, and decided to use them both to sell our old home and buy our new home," Ms. Westphal said. "Even in this down market, our home sold in less than a week. Our buyer's agent was particularly outstanding and negotiated a great deal for us on our new home. We couldn't have been happier with the whole process."
Industry insiders are taking note of Sawbuck's technology and business model. The Washington Post called Sawbuck "a great search tool" and real estate columnist Elizabeth Razzi declared, "It's likely to be the site I use most often to search listings and gather price information." Bankrate.com labeled Sawbuck one of its "Best sites for online home shopping." And respected blog FutureOfRealEstateMarketing named Sawbuck one of its "10 Kick Ass Real Estate Search Sites."
"The response to Sawbuck has been overwhelming," said Barnes. "From the beginning, our goal was to give homebuyers the best of everything – the best search tools, best agent, best mortgage, best settlement, biggest savings – while giving up nothing. Reaching the milestone of one million listings viewed in such a short time tells us we are truly giving consumers what they want."
Currently live in Washington, DC, Sawbuck plans to bring its unique offering to several new markets in the coming months, including Baltimore, Philadelphia and Chicago.
About Sawbuck Realty
Sawbuck Realty (www.sawbuckrealty.com)
is a web-based real estate broker headquartered in Washington, DC. Sawbuck's unique business model: 1) empowers buyers with the best search tools, technology and information; 2) connects buyers with the very best local agents; 3) gives buyers a below-market mortgage with no closing costs; and 4) negotiates the lowest possible settlement costs for buyers. Sawbuck and its network of real estate agent partners currently serve the Maryland, Virginia and Washington, DC markets.
Press Contact
Steve Cook
scook [at] sawbuckrealty [dot] com
Direct: (202) 257-3652