Our Company

Crawford Realty is not just another Birmingham real estate company. Our hybrid approach to selling homes combines the best of Discount Brokerages and Full Commission Realtors with the freedom of a For Sale By Owner. At Crawford Realty, we realize that most buyers do much of their home searching on-line, then jump in their cars to see the houses they like. After finding the house they want, they usually call an agent to schedule a showing and make an offer.

When we (Emily & Wayne Crawford) decided to put our Atlanta home on the market in 2004 we couldn't possibly justify paying an agent 6% to basically put it on the MLS®, because the agent who had listed our previous home for sale made more on the sale of our home than we did! So we hired Duffy Realty of Atlanta to put our home on the MLS® for $500 and a fraction of a percent commission when the sale closed. Right away we realized that Duffy's idea was going to change the way people bought and sold houses…and we wanted in. At the time, Emily was working in Birmingham and we took turns commuting back and forth between our Birmingham home and our residence in Atlanta. We ended up selling our Atlanta home through Duffy Realty and saved over $11,000 in commissions.

Fast forward to April, 2005: Wayne has now relocated full time to Birmingham as a licensee of Rainmaker Realty Inc., owned by Frank and Rhonda Duffy, who operate Duffy Realty of Atlanta. Now a licensed agent in Alabama, He has opened Crawford Realty and has just listed his first home for sale in the Birmingham MLS®. As of only 2 ½ years later, Wayne Crawford is now a Broker, and Crawford Realty has sold over $23 million worth of homes, saving our average homeseller client almost $7,800 in commissions.

We are ready to help you save, too! And, by the way, Crawford Realty of Alabama is proud to say that we are a Better Business Bureau Accredited Business and, for each of our first two full years in business, Wayne Crawford, broker/owner, has been awarded Gold Plateau membership in the Birmingham Association of Realtors® Club of Excellence.

Wayne Crawford
Broker and owner
wayne@crawfordrealty.net
205-437-2004

Meet the Owner

Wayne spent much of his early career in the hospitality industry. With an Ivy League Business Degree in hotel and restaurant management, he helped to develop and grow a number of regional and national restaurant companies serving anything from prime rib to enchiladas to jelly donuts, and has always had a highly-developed service mentality that has served him well in his subsequent Real Estate career. For years, his avocation was real estate and, even as an outsider, he always had more than a passing interest in it, buying and selling an unusually large number of personal homes and helping friends through their buying or selling processes as well. For years he had toyed with the idea of making it his profession, but was never quite comfortable with justifying the amount of money he had seen agents earning (read: how much it had cost him to sell his own properties) for the amount of work they actually did. Then he discovered the Duffys’ “Hybrid” concept, where sellers could have an agent and an MLS® listing, pay only for services they actually used, lower the burden of the listing commission they would pay when the house sold, and still have the opportunity to sell their home as a For-Sale-By-Owner. He had found the answer…AND the key to the future of Real Estate! He became an agent and a Duffy licensee, and introduced this new concept to Birmingham, Alabama, where the response has been overwhelmingly positive. Wayne says, “Now, more than ever, it’s critical for sellers to get as much marketing exposure as they can, but keep as much of their equity as possible. Crawford Realty offers a unique opportunity for sellers to have an agent, price their home lower than their competition, stay in control of the selling process, and still get the equity they need when they sell. We offer buyers the opportunity to find more home for less money as well as participate in the buying process and earn cash for doing so.”

*IT'S IMPORTANT FOR YOU TO KNOW that MLS the entry-only listings offered by some companies are illegal in Alabama, where the MINIMUM SERVICES LAW (Section 34-27-84 of Alabama Code) reads:

"When accepting an agreement to list an owner's property for sale, the broker or his or her licensee shall, at minimum, accept delivery of and present to the consumer all offers, counteroffers, and addenda to assist the consumer in negotiating offers, counteroffers, and addenda, and to answer the consumer's questions relating to the transaction."

Crawford Realty is a full-service agency that is always available to provide all minimum services as well as any other services our sellers need, on a fee-for-service basis.