Flat Fee MLS listing service ADDvantage® is ready to sell your home and save you lots of money
Everyone wants to save money but no one wants to buy something that doesn't work. The smart by owners use a flat fee MLS listing service to capitalize on the strength of the MLS and the Realtors.
But why list flat fee in the MLS? The reason is simple…Realtors control 86% of all buyers and homes sold by Realtor sell for a higher dollar amount than is sold ‘by owner’. If you want to get the most for your home, you need as many buyers looking and thinking about making an offer on your home. It is a numbers game, just like selling anything.
The biggest reason to use a flat fee MLS listing service is that you don't pay 6% commission. With a flat fee MLS listing, by owners only offer buyer's agents a commission which is typically set at 3%. And, if sold ‘by owner’ with no Realtor involved, you save the entire 6%.
So back to the question, are flat fee MLS listing services a good deal for the public or a waste of time and money?
The answer is simply the flat fee MLS as an industry is exploding right now because it takes two to tango and finally both the general public and the Realtors have accepted flat fee MLS listings as apart of the real estate industry.
There was a time the some Realtors would boycott flat fee MLS listing services because they feared the competition of losing their 6% traditional full-service business. Truth is, the 6% business is here to stay and so is the flat fee MLS listing business model. Buyer's agents are happy to show and sell flat fee listed homes and earn the offered commission. I even think buyer's agents glow at the opportunity to work with ‘unrepresented sellers’ because Realtors think they are easy-pickens!
I say this with no disrespect to the company that I founded, ADDvantage® or to the flat fee MLS listing industry as a whole but rather as a warning to all. I speak from experience after talking with many Realtors that have done deals with my flat fee sellers.
The only drawback I see is that by owner MLS sellers that represent themselves are at times no match for a skilled buyer's agents. Buyer's agents can and will take advantage of a seller that is naïve.
You might listen to my video about ‘why upgrade to Professional ADDvantage™’. The entire interview is about how important it is to get represented by a skilled broker when listing flat fee in the MLS.
At ADDvantage®, flat fee MLS listing has two levels of service. A traditional flat fee listing ((Program not currently available)) where the by owner MLS seller is ‘self-represented’ also called ‘limited service’ and our hybrid-flat fee MLS listing called Professional ADDvantage™ where I (or your local broker) represent the by owner for 0.75% at close ($1,500 min).
In total, assuming we close the home, the by owner pays 1.75% at close for an Professional ADDvantage™ flat fee MLS listing. This fee pays for complete contract negotiations, contract review, inspection report, closing, tile, issues, HUD settlement statement review, communication and more. Professional ADDvantage™ is the king™ of flat fee MLS listing plans.
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