You need effective marketing to sell real estate properties in today’s digital age.
When you consider the fact that about 90% of home buyers usually take to the internet or go through a Realtor at some point for their home search, you’ll realize how powerful and effective it can be to get your property listed in MLS.
If you plan on selling your home very soon, you have a variety of options to consider.
You can pay for a flat fee MLS service at a low price or go for a traditional 6% listing. While the latter is commission-based, the former involves paying a smaller fixed fee either up-front or at closing.
Flat Fee MLS Listing vs Traditional 6% Listing
Both of these are common options when you need MLS exposure for your property.
While most people would just go for a flat fee MLS, some would go for a traditional listing.
With the latter option, the commission you pay depends on exactly how much you’re able to sell your property for.
The flat fee MLS option allows you to pay a much lower pre-negotiated amount.
How exactly do both of these options measure up against each other? Let’s see!
Costs savings difference
Traditional listings will set you back a whopping 6%; on a $500,000 property that adds up to $30,000.
That’s quite a bit of money compared to the smaller amount you’ll pay for a flat fee MLS service.
It’s easy to understand why this is the case, traditional listing agents are locked into charging high commissions because their livelihood depends on it.
A flat fee MLS listing, on the other hand, will help you avoid paying those expensive listing commissions that eat into your profit.
The money you save is what makes the difference between purchasing a flat fee MLS listing and most of the other alternatives.
If you’re concerned about getting real value from your home sales, flat fee MLS listings are the better and less expensive option compared to traditional listings.
Service offering difference
Sure, you’ll save money, but you might wonder what you’ll sacrifice for the savings you’ll get by using a flat fee MLS listing service.
For a flat fee MLS listing service to be successful, we need two things – customer satisfaction and the ability to handle a large volume of listings efficiently.
It’s unlikely that you’ll ever meet your flat fee MLS listing agent in person, however we’re generally more accessible and more responsive than a traditional listing agent.
You’ll have to attach a lockbox to your door to facilitate showings by buyer’s agents.
You’ll have to put a yard sign in your yard to indicate that your property is up for sale.
If you’re handy with a camera you can take your listing photos or you can hire one of the professional photo services that some traditional agents use to take your listing photos for you.
You’ll still have to fill out and sign listing paperwork, fill out forms outlining sales related details about your property and a seller’s disclosure, you still have to clean and prepare your home for sale, and agree on a listing amount.
Your flat fee MLS listing agent can still run a CMA to help you determine list price, give you forms guidance, and help you negotiate from contract to close just like a traditional agent.
Once a traditional agent signs a listing agreement, they rarely re-visit the property again until after closing to pick up their sign and Supra lockbox.
Bottom Line
Flat fee MLS listings help you avoid paying those huge traditional listing commissions in exchange for a little more effort on your part.
If you shop around for a flat fee MLS listing service that offers extras built in to their listing packages like a showing scheduling service, a yard sign, forms, and negotiation assistance, then you probably won’t even notice that you didn’t hire a traditional listing agent until you get to closing and see the increase to your bottom line.
