With what many call the greatest shakeup in a century in the U.S. residential real estate market now underway, the founder of StopLyte, a matchmaking portal that aims to bring together buyers and sellers in a secure, interactive manner, that launches this month, says he has found a solution.
Part of the National Association of Realtors’ $418 million settlement of lawsuits from homesellers over commissions eliminated rules on commissions as of August 17. Barrett Wood, a former real estate agent and StopLyte founder and CEO, saw major changes in home buying and selling coming “several years ago” and began developing StopLyte.
“After nearly a decade in the real estate industry I saw the writing on the wall with the increasing pushback from consumers on sales commissions and fees,” says Wood, “StopLyte is the first platform to put users at the center and in control of the home transaction process.”
Users will be able to opt into the StopLyte.com platform by identifying their home just like a traditional stoplight, with three options: Green (currently on the market), Yellow (open to selling under certain conditions) or Red (not yet open to selling).
“As consumers begin to take greater control of their home transactions, StopLyte offers a number of options far greater than typical ‘For Sale By Owner (FSBO)’ listings,” Wood said. “With discreet matchmaking of sellers and buyers, private messaging, real-time data exchange and the ‘first look’ at many properties not found elsewhere, the site centralizes what buyers and sellers need the most, all in a safe, secure community environment.”
StopLyte.com will be live online this month with the first two pilot markets being Greenville/ Spartanburg/Asheville and Nashville, updated daily with new data as additional markets will start to come online before the end of the year.
“We really are entering a whole new landscape for how homes will be bought and sold,” Wood continues, “The end of traditional commissions is a huge windfall for consumers.”
