Maybe the phone lines were down. There are plent of other companies out there that do flat fee listings. Iggy is the only web site that uses a wierd but different business model. We will see how long it lasts.

Wow...Iggy's House Closed?

I remember a short time ago a Trulia member was telling me that they were going to take over Real Estate. I guess not.

IggysHouse.com is back! Earlier this year, the website was deactivated and then eventually sold. Since that time, the website has been upgraded to enhance the seller experience and offer of service. Sellers from all 50 states may utilize the Free online space to advertise their properties for sale and include unlimited images, text, and details. Yard signs can be purchased which drives potential buyers to the specific property on the website as well as allowing them to call a toll free number. IggysHouse.com was and continues to be the only website associated with the term “Free MLS Listing”. The Free service is now available in select states as a sample whereby a seller may continue with our low monthly “Pay As You Go” MLS service following the Free period. Our expansion plans for the next year to offer MLS service in more states are detailed on our service coverage page.

http://www.iggyshouse.com/ServiceCoverage.aspx

Since IggysHouse.com is now a website and not a competing Real Estate brokerage, we invite all brokers to participate in the opportunity of being an affiliate listing broker with IggysHouse.com. This can produce streaming income for a broker as they will share in the fees collected by the website and the closing admin fee for servicing MLS listings.

IggysHouse.com has returned!

I found the answer you are looking for... a company called webdigs purchased the company.( per PR newswire) And from what I can tell the did this to "KILL" this great free service. Webdigs charge a $3000 listing fee.
I did find a free MLS listing service called the real estate society -see there website below in references. Here is the deal with them from what i can tell... they list your home on your local mls and realtor.com. They do ask you to allow them to compete for your mortgage business when you purchase your new home and let them find your new home -which they give you 1/2 the buyers commission. Looks good but have not used them as of yet. Has anyone used their free mls listing service?

Free MLS at Freeltor.com

check it out

http://www.freeltor.com

I actually did sell my house using their free MLS listing, but I don't know how to advise you about waiting or not. They haven't proven to be too reliable -- LOL. Something you might try if you decide to wait is to advertise on Craigslist.org in the meantime. Listings are free there, and you can post 4 pictures, too. Make sure you add a line that you are willing to work with a realtor, i.e. pay the 3% commission. Based on my experience, realtors cruise the site regularly. Best of luck to you!

My listing was taken down with them as well, but i did just try and repost my listing on the MLS for free and got this message

"Iggys House Listing Notice:
We apologize for the inconvenience. We are enhancing the MLS listing process and it is currently unavailable. We will resume offering the MLS listing service during the week of August 6, 2008.

Thank you for your patience.

Iggys House Support Team"

So I am wondering if I should shell out the $300 it costs for a flat fee listing deal or wait the week for it to be free.

If you read the email from Joe Fox to his employees, all should know that he has mixed business with his personal accounts from day 1 and if you hire an attorney, make sure you go after your benefits and back pay as they should seize his back account and his families. Do not let this man keep scamming the world. Get what you deserve or what is justified, I know that Plexus and Blue Cross Blue Shield if they had a say would provide COBRA for you. This man must be stopped.

Here is the physical address for the company: 1 S. Wacker Dr. Chicago, IL, 60606, but they may have been evicted from there since they are such a deadbeat organization lead by a deadbeat.

Janice, congrats on your contract!!!

You made it on Inman but you know that already since you gave the interview...

http://www.inman.com/news/2008/07/23/iggys-house-site-returns-web

Naima
214-289-8555
naima@sumner-realty.com

Todfay's article from Inman News:
http://www.inman.com/news/2008/07/23/iggys-house-site-returns-web

This is from the person who posted a response in the past about the company being shut. It does appear to be operational again. At least the web site is up. No news from anyone over there as to who is working or what is going on. I still have not received my back pay and would be curious to see how they have gotten around that aspect with all the other employees. The 877 number goes to the voice of someone who worked there named Marshall. The corporate number still appears to be down. Who knows what is happening with that place. I can smell a former employee suit coming along.

Iggy's web-site is indeed back up and active. I received an email notice from them, and went online and changed the status of my house to "Under Contract". Hopefully this is the end of this saga, at least for me. Of course, in this housing market, that depends on if we actually CLOSE on the house as planned!

Iggys House is back up... I'd be curious to hear whether there's any service though. Something tells me that it's a skeleton crew running the sinking ship.

Update for those interested: I received an email from "help@iggyshouse.com" on 7/12, as follows:
Dear Member,

We noticed a post on Trulia Voices that you were interested in having your MLS listing cancelled.

Please reply to this email with that request if such is the case.

Thank you,
Iggys House Support Team

I responded to the email and my MLS listing has been cancelled, but in my email I urged whomever was on the other end to release information to help all of the stranded Iggy's buyers and sellers. No response. Curious that the "help" email address bounced back last week when I tried to contact someone about my listing.

Apparently posting negative experiences on a rival's site is the only way anyone will get help. Big brother is watching.

It seems obvious that Iggy's has closed, but I don't understand how they can abandon all the people who were working with them. I have a property listed through Iggy's on the Massachusetts MLS, and now the phone number and website referenced on my MLS listing go no where - "this call cannot be completed as dialed." When I contacted the MA MLS to ask to have my listing removed, they refused because they need broker approval. They said since the broker is still "active," they can't do anything.

Has anyone had any luck getting a hold at anyone at Iggy's to get some sort of written approval to have their listing removed?

I also worked for Iggys. We were all notified by the email someone posted below and also had a conference call where everyone was again laid off and told that there was no money to pay us for the 4 weeks we all worked for free. I have heard rumors from other employees that they may keep sellers services going, and also that some employees may be offered their job back but pay may be re-negotiated for those.

Thank you to the former employee of Iggy's House. It's kind of you to keep us Iggy "orphans" informed. I truly hope you are NOT out of a job! You're stating that Iggy's is out of business, but how do you account for the July 4th email stating that the website will again be funtional some time this week?

I would like to remain nameless but I worked for Iggy's House and the company has closed. The email from Joe Fox below is accurate and was the email that went to all employees.

I received a copy of the email mentioned below. So, I guess they ARE still in business, or attempting to be, anyway. Good luck to them. They sure did let down a lot of people.

Here's a copy of an e-mail that Iggy's House sent to its customers earlier this morning. When I first discovered that Iggy's House was down, I contacted a FSBO of whom I knew that he was using Iggy's House and I asked what he knew about the fate of Iggy's House. He forwarded this e-mail to me today.

"From: IggysHouse Help [mailto:help@iggyshouse.com]
Sent: Friday, July 04, 2008 7:43 AM
Subject: Iggys House Update - PLEASE READ


Dear Valued Members,

As you have undoubtedly noticed, the Iggys House website has been inaccessible. This untimely outage has affected our email, phone, and fax service as well. We have been working on restoring the service in a manner whereby this situation will not arise again and we can continue to offer our incredibly valuable services.

Changes are happening at Iggys House!

Our plans are to have the website accessible again in the days following the upcoming July 4th weekend.

Look for further emails regarding the status of the website.

Need immediate assistance?

If you require immediate service with changes to price or commission for your MLS listing, please reply to this email. We will do our best to accommodate all requests in a timely manner. During this time, it is required to include the property address including the state in the email to easily identify your listing.

Please do not request status changes until the website is accessible again. There is normally additional information required and the website is better equipped to handle the status change requests.



We appreciate your continued patience and support. Enjoy the holiday!


Best Regards,
Iggys House Support Team"

Iggy W,

Would you please provide the name and contact information for the Chicago Realtor's Association attorney who call yous back?

Thanks,

Stuck Iggy's Seller

Advice to those caught in the "Iggy trap". Contact your local MLS office. The Dallas MLS service was able to change the MLS status by attempting to contact Iggy's and waiting 48 hours for response (of course, they received none).
MY problem seems to be resolved. Look for a related article at REALTYTIMES.com on Monday. They might be interested in adding your details to the article if you want to contact them.

This is the memo I received from Jean. I can't guarantee it's authenticity, but it sure sounds right. Best of luck.

From: Joseph Fox
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 7:38 PM
To: Joseph Fox
Subject: Important info
Dear Employees:
As a follow up to our conference call from Monday.
Iggys House has tried valiantly to complete a transaction to raise capital. But, as I stated
on the call we were unable to do so. The Company is shutting down.
The Company is simply out of money. Unfortunately, this means that:
1. The Company is unable to pay any back payroll or any future payroll.
2. The Company is unable to pay the premium for its group health insurance
policy for June 2008 or any later period.
3. The Company is unable to pay the premium for its group dental insurance
policy for July 2008 or any later period.
4. Here's the name and phone number at Plexus for anyone looking for individual health
coverage or for any 401(k) questions.
The Plexus Groupe Inc.
Terry White
PH: 847-307-6100
FX: 847-307-6199
5. You will not be able to get COBRA insurance through the Company, because the
Company is going out of business and will not be maintaining any group
insurance plans.
6. As I stated Monday, we are all unemployed at this point.
I thank you for all of your hard work and loyalty. Obviously, this was not the outcome
that any of us wanted.
Joe

Hi, Jean.

Could you post or email the CEO's memo to me directly?

We have two active listings with Iggy's House and want to relist with another broker. The local MLS board refuses to authorize any changes without consent from the listing agent. Obviously, Mr. Fox isn't going to respond. Being able to verify the company is out of business would go a LONG way in helping get this resolved quickly for sellers. It will likely be months before the various MLS boards make a unilateral decision.

I can't even update contact information or change the price on the current listing!!! Can you help out?

Thanks,
Carol Riley
carol@343homes.com

Jean-

I understand that you have a copy of an internal memo. However, giving us bits and pieces of said memo does not really give us any insight of what the company is doing. Is there anyway that you could post a full copy of the memo?

http://www.inman.com/news/2008/07/2/iggys-house-ceo-reports-…

According to this report, the company is undergoing restructuring and will re-open within the next week. I guess we will have to wait and see. I filed a complaint with the IDFPR. Hopefully, we can keep up with this information.

Iggy's house was the listing side.... the buyer's side (buyside realty) seems to be down too.... I assume the company went bust??

I also listed my home on Iggy's House within the last couple of weeks. I work in the city of Chicago and visited the building listed as Iggy's House Corporate Headquarters. The security desk informed me that Iggy's House had vacated their office space within the last week. They smiled and told me that they were not coming back.

I also contacted the Chicago Realtor Association today. They informed me that Iggy's House's realtor membership in Chicago was listed as suspended. I am supposed to speak with someone in their legal department tomorrow. It should hopefully provide some feedback.

I am also curious to know of the status of the company. If you could e-mail me at iggyw619@yahoo.com, I would appreciate it. Thank you!

Jean, is there any way you could email me confidentially, and provide me with the former employee's name & phone number? I have actually sold my home the other day and have asked MLS to change the MLS listing to reflect it is under contract, but they keep wanting to clear it with Iggy's. If I could give MLS proof positive of Iggy's demise, it might make things easier here. Also, if YOUR house goes under contract later on, you will need to have your listing removed from MLS and it ain't easy, believe me.
My email: cmdowden@aol.com

I have contacted the Metroplex Assoc of Realtors in Dallas, and they have someone working on it there. Iggy's is still listed as having a valid Texas broker's license. Will advise more if and when I find out more.

Same here - I had listed a house a week or two ago and now it's like the server is completely down. I suspect they are out of business but no amount of googling is giving me an answer.

Janice
You might be interested to know that I periodically conduct a study of my local MLS regarding MLS entry only providers, discount brokers, and how they compare to full service. As the markets have shifted it takes a lot more to sell a home, and there is a lot of financial pressure on brokers working with lean margins.

The results of my last two quarters have been pretty consistent:
1. Compared to Full Service brokers, discount and MLS entry only services are a lower list price to sale price ration, about 2.5%. So a home that is listed for $100,000 sells for about $97,000 with a full service broker, compared to $94,500 by the other two models.
2. The expiration rate, or the proportion of homes that are listed, compared to those that actually sell, is big. Last quarter, these were the listings SOLD:
Entry Only 28
Limited 19
Full 4995

Listings that expired
Expired
Entry only 34
Lmited 23
Full 4556

So listings taken by MLS entry only and discount brokers FAIL to sell 33% more often.

3. Listings sold by full service brokers have shorter market times.

So if you have time and money to burn, and don't really need to sell, then have at it.

If you need to sell for top dollar , then interview three Realtors and pick the best one.

Hi Janice. I was just wondering the same thing today when I tried to access it to give the information to someone. I can only speculate. They offered the service in hopes of picking up the loan business and with the lending industry crisis, I wonder whether they had to close shop due to lack of business. Couldn't find any news about it, but it's only a matter of time before the news will get out if they indeed closed. Of course, it could also just be a matter of a server problem, but one would think that they'd at least still answer their phones and e-mails. I know they sought to go public last year and withdrew the IPO earlier this year which suggests some trouble in my humble opinion.