Eren Millam, Realtor

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Don’t Sell Your House with A Flat Fee Listing Until You Read This!

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Don’t Sell Your House with A Flat Fee Listing Until You Read This!

Selling your home is one of the biggest decisions you will make in your life! On top of that, it may well be the largest transaction you ever do. You’ve decided you don’t want to use a Realtor because you don’t want to pay commission, but you do want to get your property listed on the MLS and marketed to Realtors. Flat Fee Listing services seem like the perfect solution!

Image Courtesy of Avio Travel, aviotravel.com

COST

If you want to get your listing on the MLS, a Flat Fee Listing is the cheapest way to do it! Packages typically run between $100 – $500 with different services associated with the package. *

A Realtor’s commission is negotiable, with most listings between 5-7%. On a $200,000 property, the cost will be about $12,000 (6%).

Before getting into the services each cost provides, the commission is split between both offices and both agents, so split four different ways. The agent who lists your property will gross around $3,000. The fees and dues it costs to be a Realtor is about $200/mo, so $1200 on a typical

6-month listing. This leaves the agent with $1800 to market your property and provide for his/her family. That gives you an idea of why the commission is set where it is.

* Keep reading for more cost associated with Flat Fee Listings.

SERVICES

According to MySecretAgent.com, a full package MLS Flat Fee Listing will run you about $500.

Here is what is included:

· 12-month listing

· 25 Photos

· Selling Forms & Contracts

· Broker Support – $75 per hour

· Phone/Email Forwarding

· Manage Your Listing 24/7

· Showcased on REALTOR.com

· MLS Listing

· Featured on Zillow & Trulia

· Custom Yard Sign

· Flyer Box

· Listing Renewal Discount

· Unlimited Changes to Listing

· Additional Home Selling Tools – $$ Variable per

tool

· Personal Home Page

· Schedule Open House

· Maintain Virtual Tour

· Retain the right to sell FSBO

· Cancel Anytime

· Zero Amount Due at Closing to MySecretAgent

For Home Sellers, this sounds like a lot of tools that will get your home sold. A lot of these tools are very similar to what agents use as well, however, the piece that is missing is the human element of service. More on this below.

You may have noticed that there are extra fees other than just the Flat Fee Listing. Some of the other fees they aren’t trying to sell you and don’t tell you about is the commission to the buyer’s agent and closing fees. Closing fees usually run about 3% of purchase price. How much commission you want to provide to the buyer’s agent is up to you, but the more you offer the more agents you will attract.

Do some Realtors avoid Flat Fee Listings? Maybe. See the link below for a discussion:

http://www.zillow.com/advice-thread/Do-realtors-avoid-flat-fee-listings/452235/

I personally do not avoid Flat Fee Listings because I want to make sure my clients have all the options that are available to choose from on the table. The biggest issue I have run across when looking at these types of properties is that they are grossly overpriced. I would not be doing my client a service by showing them a home that is more expensive per square foot than the going rate for that area.

The commission that agents expect is 3% if you want them to drawn to your property. Going back to the math, on a $200,000 property you would pay $500 Flat Fee + 3% Commission + 3% Closing. Your net proceeds using a Flat Fee Listing would be $187,500 as compared to an agent listing of $182,000. You are only saving $5500 by not using a Realtor and that is only if your house sells.

REALTOR SERVICE

Here is what the Realtor commission will procure for you:

Listing – You determine the length (Typical contract is 6months)
25+ Photos – Targeted towards what house buyers want in thecurrent market.
Selling Forms & Contracts – These are definitely notuser-friendly. They are legally binding and your Realtor uses them every day.He or she can guide you through each line & paragraph.
Broker Support – FREE, ANYTIME, EMAIL, PHONE, TEXT
Phone/Email Forwarding – Your Realtor will take care of allemails and phone calls for you and qualify buyers to ensure only serious &qualified buyers enter your property
Manage your listing 24/7 – You Realtor will do this for youAND provide tips on how best to market/stage/present your property.
Featured on MLS, REALTOR.com, Zillow, & Trulia – Thesesites do a direct feed from the MLS so the property’s information goes in thereautomatically. A really good Realtor will input them directly to make sure theinformation is correct AND syndicate to THOUSANDS for real estate related
sites.
Yard Sign/Flyer Box – These are free to you as your Realtorwill provide them. Signs can cost $100 or more, not including installation!
Changes to your listing – Talk to your Realtor, they canusually make the changes instantly if they are at a computer.
Additional selling tools – Your Realtor will provide theseat NO COST to you. In fact, the Realtor is out money providing them unless yourproperty sells.
Personal Home page – Realtors that go above and beyond, suchas myself, will create single property websites dedicated to your property.
Open House/Virtual Tour – Your Realtor will do these for youAND make sure they are targeted at today’s buyers.
Cancel anytime – Although you signed a contract, talk toyour Realtor if you’re not happy and they will let you out.
Zero due at closing – This is where Flat Fee Listing willbite you. First, there is nothing due to the company because you paid up front,regardless of whether your listing sells or not. Second, there is no mention ofthe closing costs and buyer’s agent commission. That’s a big omission!
And more – Blogging, SEO, IDX, Listing & Videosyndication, troubleshooting, legal protection, etc.

As you can see, using a Realtor takes a lot of the work out of the process. They are able to guide you from beginning to end of the transaction and make sure you don’t get stuck with a nasty closing surprise at the end. To really market a property and get it sold, you need more than just marketing materials. You need an expert who knows the process, knows who to market to, and can help you avoid potential pitfalls. Maybe you can do it yourself, but at least you now know the truth about Flat Fee Listings.

Here are some Flat Fee Listing Companies to compare:

If you’d rather take the hassle out of the process, my contact information is below or you can visit my website at www.BuyAndSellLewisCountyHomes.com

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