Homeowners shudder when they learn that listing their home with a real estate agent will cost them 6% of the home’s sale price. We have a $ 300,000 house, that’s $ 18,000. How long did it take you to earn this amount of money at your job? Better yet, how long did it take them to save this amount of money? Increasingly, homeowners are wondering why they need to spend so much to simply sell their home.
One of the main advantages that listing agents have over an individual selling their home on their own is the advertising exposure they receive with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). In today’s buyer’s market, it is essential that a home is exposed and advertised to as many potential sellers as possible.
By listing your home for sale with a flat-rate MLS listing service, you get both advantages: you still sell your home by owner, and you can list your home for sale on MLS just like a listing agent would. Instead of a listing agent representing you in the sale of your home and charging you 3% for this service, you represent yourself and pay a flat listing fee.
The traditional 6% commission is a combination of the listing agent’s commission and the buyer’s agent commission, both typically 3%, for a total cost of 6%. With a flat rate quote, you pay no commission to the listing agent. Instead, you pay them a flat fee. On the buyer’s side, you will still have to pay a commission to the represented buyer’s agent, but this is generally at most half the total commission you would pay with the traditional model, or up to 3%. This commission is set by you in advance. For unrepresented buyers, you will not pay any commission!
Only a licensed real estate broker who is a member of the MLS and pays the fees owed and the MLS fees can list a property in the MLS. A person cannot simply post an “ad” in MLS, like placing an ad in a newspaper. There are thousands of MLS associations across the country. When listing on the MLS, you generally choose to include a listing on the MLS that represents the area where your property is located. However, properties in one area are sometimes listed in an MLS that represents a different area. For example, someone trying to sell a weekend beach house on the Outer Banks of North Carolina may want to list their beach house on the Triad MLS, which covers an 11-county area around the Greensboro, High Point, and Winston-Salem to gain exposure. to a metropolitan area whose residents are likely to use your vacation area.
Flat-rate MLS listings are also known as Limited Service (LS) listings because the home seller does not receive the same level of service that a full-service listing would provide. They save by buying only what they need.
For those who are willing and able to handle the ins and outs of selling their real estate, Flat Fee MLS listings provide the exposure they need at a very reasonable cost.
