Galloway Real Estate Agent Lets Clients 'Do-It-Themselves'

Galloway Township resident and longtime real estate agent Tony Leone is giving anyone frustrated with their real estate agent and who has a house to sell the chance to do it for themselves.

Leone runs the website homesalesandauctions.com. He has had the site for several years, and he opened an office in Absecon in November of last year.

He’s offering those with homes on the market the unique chance to act as their own real estate agent. For about $15.99 a month, Leone allows prospective sellers to post their listing on his site, and they set up everything else, including hosting open houses and negotiating with those searching for a home. He’s also running a special right now in which he will give anyone who signs up a voucher code to post their listing for free.

People submit bids through the site until an offer is reached. The seller can determine how long they want their listing on the site, and the cost is adjusted based on how long their home is listed. To bid, a person must be registered with the site.

“People always want to try to do it themselves, and I’m giving people the opportunity to do it themselves,” Leone said. “A few people can do it themselves, but many people get taken advantage of. People will sell their home for $180,000 when they could’ve gotten $225,000.”

He added there are difficulties anyone can come across in just getting people to come see their home and make an offer. People who are handling the sale of their own homes traditionally aren’t prepared to field phone calls at all hours and to host possible buyers on a moment’s notice.

Leone says that if a person comes to him and sets up a listing on his site and finds selling their own home to be harder than they originally thought, he will take over and help sell their home.

“Probably 80 to 90 percent of people that try it can’t handle it,” Leone said. “I tell them that whenever someone comes by to look at your home, write down their license plate number. You can get a lot of lookers coming through your house that have no intention of buying. “

He also said people may sell their home at a reasonable price, but end up losing money to do things the Realtor normally handles, including advertising.

“Advertising costs money, and you have to beware of Craigslist,” Leone said. “There’s a lot of scammers out there, and I’ve heard of people going through to look at someone’s house and they’ll rip the plumbing right out of the wall.”

However, he said he does make posting a listing on his site confidential, and sellers don’t have to enter an address if they don’t want to.

Currently, two Galloway Township homes are listed on the main page of his website. One is located on Giulia Lane and has been listed for 120 days. The other doesn’t provide an address and has been on the market for 180 days.

Leone, originally from New York, has been in the real estate business for about 10 years. In that time, he also worked in the casino industry in Las Vegas before moving to New Jersey to work in the casino industry in Atlantic City and continue his real estate venture. He has since left the casino industry. He has lived in Galloway since 2004.

No contracts are involved, and no commission is collected. Leone can be reached at 609-568-5616.