Realtor vs. Flat Fee Broker
Marketing was the focus of our number one tip on yesterday’s post, 8 Tips for Selling a Home (when nobody else can). The Multiple Listing Service is perhaps the most valuable marketing tool, usually the first stop for buyers and their agents.
The trick is, you can’t get your property listed on the MLS without a licensed real estate agent. The standard commission for a seller’s agent is 5% to 6%, a hefty chunk of change off your total proceeds. In the current tight times with home values spiraling downward, sellers may find themselves trending toward the downright greedy. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. But what if you could bypass that commission altogether without sacrificing any perks offered by seller’s agents? With flat fee brokers, you can!
Flat fee brokers will list your property on the MLS for a one-time up-front payment starting at about $399. The listing lasts about six months, and can then be re-posted by the agent for a small fee of less than $100. Flat fee brokers will often allow you to add on services as well so you order your realtor’s services a la carte, so to speak. They may offer marketing tools like yard signs or brochure boxes and may even offer consultation on pricing or closing.
A flat fee broker can even list a special phone number with your property and forward all calls to that number directly to your own personal phone line. This concept keeps the control (and the bulk of the work, unfortunately) in the hands of sellers while saving them money.
On the other hand, it still allows real estate agents to cash in a little bit. Make no mistake, however - flat fee brokers are loathed in the world of real estate agents. Does this mean no buyer’s agent will steer their client your way if you used a flat fee broker? No, absolutely not, and one way to entice buyer’s agents even more is by advertising a buyer’s agent fee of around 3 percent. This will be affordable in light of the savings you will have reaped by eliminating seller’s agent fees.
It is also possible that buyers themselves will contact you after seeing your add in the MLS listings. This can enable you to sell directly to buyers, eliminating the need for real estate agents and their fees altogether on the buying or selling end.
