Improving Competition in Real Estate TransactionsC2166

In most OECD countries, the vast majority of home sales occur with the help of a professional intermediary. It is often argued that sellers choose intermediaries because they have insufficient information about markets, prefer to avoid trouble involved with selling a home and judge that they will receive a higher price for the sale of their home by using an intermediary. However, these benefits of using a professional intermediary are likely overstated. In some countries, such as France, there is a viable and well accepted tradition of owners selling their own homes with as many as 50% of homes being sold directly by their owners without any professional intermediary. This high success of direct selling by owners is only possible because there is a well-known publication and Internet site that attracts a high number of potential buyers.