Sawbuck Realty expands to Los Angeles

Company gets $2 million in round of financing

November 23, 2009 08:22 PM

By Inman News
Inman News

Sawbuck Realty today announced an expansion to the Los Angeles area, including Los Angeles and Orange counties and the Inland Empire.

The company has rolled out new features on its redesigned Web site and also announced that it has closed on $2 million in a round of financing, which will be used to drive further expansion and improve the company's Web site. A.H. Belo Corp led the financing round.

Launched in January 2008 in the Washington, D.C., area, Sawbuck Realty offers mortgage and closing services through third-party providers and subsidizes a portion of those costs for its buyer clients.

Sawbuck promises to pay $1,000 if a client finds a better mortgage and closing-cost deal than it offers through its partners.

The company has in-house agents who work with buyers and has launched a partner agent network through which sellers can work with outside listing agents and receive a 20 percent refund from the listing commission at closing.

Among the new Web site features that the company has unveiled:

• News Feed: offers live information about new listings, price changes, contracts and sales.
• Homes can be viewed in a list, gallery or map view, and map improvements now group and number homes in the same area in zoom-out views to avoid overlapping displays.
• Market Guide: provides total listings, new listings, price reductions, days on market, months of inventory, median sales price, contracts and total sales, and other statistics for a local housing market.
• Market Health Score: combines data for inventory; change in median sales price, percentage of contracts that close; and the balance between new listings, price reductions, contracts and sales. Users can also compare the "market health" of any cities, ZIP codes and neighborhoods within Sawbuck's coverage areas.
• Track cities, ZIP codes, neighborhoods and individual listings with e-mail alerts or a custom RSS feed.
• My Sawbuck: displays rated listings, most recently viewed listings, saved and recent searches, market guides for favorite areas, and a link to set up home tours of favorite listings.

Sawbuck Realty and its partners serve Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C., and the Greater Los Angeles market, with plans to expand into Texas and other California markets this summer.

The company received an Inman News Innovator Award for "Most Innovative Brokerage" in 2008.

***

What's your opinion? Leave your comments below or send a letter to the editor.