Why go with a flat fee MLS listing Service

There are many reasons why listing through a flat fee listing service makes sense. Although, listing in this manner is not for everyone, the benefits strongly out-weigh the traditional alternatives (i.e. listing your property for 5-6%) to marketing real estate.  When your marketing real estate exposure is everything.  When selling you should want the world to know about your property.  The more eyes that see your property the better your chances are of finding the perfect buyer. Just like location matters in real estate. Exposure matters most when marketing real estate.  

Traditionally, real estate agents want to create a relationship with a seller that grants them the exclusive right to market your property. In other words, listing agents are asking you to give up your right to market your home by owner so they can do it and be paid for their services when the close the deal. 

Since the real estate market is over saturated with traditional real estate agents many people just think they need enter into an exclusive right to sell real estate agreement.  This is not true. 

Smart sellers who are "market savvy" will do research to find out that they do not have to go with a traditional listing agent to sell their house.  They can enter into a non exclusive listing agreement with a flat fee real estate listing service. By doing this, the seller, can market on their own as well as market through a flat fee MLS service.  Many call this method the hybrid approach to selling real estate.  We call it the smart way to sell real estate. 

In order to sell your home on the Realtor MLS you must enter into an agreement.  A listing cannot be entered into the MLS without first entering into an agreement with a agent. Doing so is against the MLS rules and regulations. When consumers hear the word agreement they often get overwhelmed, but the fact of the matter is that entering into an agreement shows professionalism and it will also protect your interest.  As a seller, you should want the agent to put what they are going to do for you in writing.  

With our flat fee MLS listing service we use an agreement called a Facilitation Listing Agreement.  This agreement is the simple way to get your home onto the MLS without giving up your rights to market and sell without an agent. 

Go Fsbo with MLS

No matter how many For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sites your home is listed on it will never reach the amount of buyers that your local Multiple Listing Service will.  Regardless of what all the popular For Sale By Owner sites say on their testimonial pages - it will never happen.  It doesn't matter which popular FSBO site you pick your wasting your money.  Of course everyone likes to see SAVE 6% and NO COMMISSION taglines but this is not realistic. 

Did you know that over 80% of the homes listed in America sell on the Multiple listing Service?  That's a lot of real estate.  The real estate market has changed a lot over the last year and exposure is everything. Our flat fee MLS service gets your home the exposure on all our partner sites.

The great thing about our flat fee MLS service is that we are only looking for a flat fee - nothing else.  Some real estate companies say they have a flat fee MLS service but they are looking for more than a flat fee. Sometimes they will say that they will put your home on the Multiple Listing Service to help you sell your home but  they will also say if they find a buyer for your property they would like to be compensated a small commission for doing so.  

If you cruise around the web you may see many sites offering flat fee listing services but be sure to read the fine print.  Many agents will say we have a few discount services to offer you.  The agent will come by and pitch you several options and steer you into listing with their full service plan.  

A FSBO approach to Flat Fee MLS

When you sell your home "By Owner" and compliment your marketing efforts with the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) you will have yourself a hybrid marketing plan.  This is the best way to sell real estate. By combining marketing plans you get the biggest bang for your buck. Our MA Flat Fee MLS service is the wave of the future. By using our service what you are essentially doing is mass marketing your home with two drastically different mediums. Some call this method MLS FSBO or FSBO MLS. It's like having two companies marketing your property. The first company is you, the seller. The second company is our flat fee MLS service or FSBO MLS service. This is a killer combo when selling your home. When savvy sellers use our ma flat fee MLS service they are looking to save money and be involved with the selling process.  With this course of action the property owner literally pursues both methods of marketing through the MA Realtors MLS and FSBO methods simultaneously. Marketing your property via our flat fee MLS can be accomplished in New England with a special listing agreement called a Facilitation Agreement. With this flat fee MLS type agreement  we will list your property for sale in the Realtor MLS for a flat fee and give you the best service money can buy. This agreement puts limitation on the real estate agencies duties as well as responsibilities to the seller such that the listing agents obligations and services are more or less limited to listing the property in the MLS. With our MA flat fee MLS service we take care of all your online marketing and maintain your MLS listing. Our Facilitation listing agreement allows you, the owner, the right to market the property yourself and avoid further commissions altogether if the owner finds a buyer from their own marketing efforts. Our MA flat fee MLS service cancels out the listing side of the commission. Our MA flat fee MLS service is provided to all seller's for a fixed dollar amount, instead of a listing commission and paid in advance at the time the MLS listing is activated on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Under our MA flat fee MLS listing agreement there would be no additional commission ever paid to us for listing your home on the MLS. No matter what - we will never request a commission percentage when you home sells.  It doesn't matter if a buyer agent sells your home or if you sell it on your own. The only time you will ever pay a commission is when a Buyer Agent brings you a buyer and the deal closes. Under a Facilitation Agreement all other Realtors can then try to sell your home to their potential buyers and earn a commission representing the Buyer as a "Buyers Agent". Sellers can offer these Buyer Agent Realtors whatever percent commission they desire, but owners should consider that offering less than the traditional 2.0% 2.5% could affect these Buyers Agent Realtors degree of interest in showing your property to their customers. If you offer enough the Buyer Agent will tap all their resources to find a buyer. 

The math is simple: instead of paying a full 5% commission, you would pay a flat fee to us and 2.5% (this percentage is totally up to you.) commission to a Buyers Agent if you sell your home to a buyer who was brought to your property by a Buyers Agent Realtor. Again, you pay us only a flat fee.  When you list your home through a flat fee MLS service it is always a good idea to be organized because your home will spark a lot of interest.  If you are going to list your home on the MLS by owner, you should consider requiring each "Buyers Agent" to accompany each of their potential buyers who come to view the property. We provide all of our Seller's with a registration log so you can keep written  records of all the names of each Realtor Buyer Agent and their prospective buyer as well as the date they viewed the property. You always want to know who is coming through your house. Having a visitor registration is useful and also prevents disputes by or between Realtors. Sometimes buyer's call around to several agencies looking for property information and sometimes buyer's will even view the home with more than one Buyer's Agent. Although this isn't common it can in-fact occur. In addition, you should be tracking all of the visitors who come through your For Sale By Owner (FSBO) marketing efforts If a Realtor does not accompany the prospective buyer or if you do not keep records, you may not know who is entitled to be paid the Buyers Agent commission. If you should be so lucky to sell your property yourself from your own advertising efforts you do not have to pay the 2.5% commission because there is no agent to pay. Imagine that. You pay a small flat fee to a flat fee MLS service and you find a buyer who is not working with an agent. This is major savings. It should be noted that savings are great and you will most likely save a lot by listing through our flat fee agency. But paying a Buyer's Agent is not all that bad because in return you are having a professional watch over the buyer. Sometimes in real estate transactions Buyer's will get confused and not get everything they need to get done in order to close. A Buyer's Agent will make sure the Buyer is doing everything in their power to make this deal happen because they do not get paid if they do not get the house to close. In short, a Buyer's Agent is a babysitter that controls the deal.  Flat fee MLS listing is the best way to sell your real estate.