flat fee mls vs. fsbo confused?

17 years ago

I asked this in a different thread but that was sort of hijacking so...

I don't understand this statement:

Posted by kpfeif (My Page) on Thu, Mar 22, 07 at 22:26

We did a flat-rate MLS listing for two months. It's important to understand that once you're on the MLS, you're no longer FSBO - you are listed on the MLS via a Realtor.

If you buy into the MLS with a Flat fee lister - who's the realtor? Aren't you doing it yourself? essentially FSBO?

Sure the flat fee company is sort of buying into the MLS as a "real estate company" but your still selling the place yourself.

Another thing - What I read here and on websites about MLS confuses me. Sometimes I get the impresssion that "normal people" can't see the MLS listings. HUH? Go to any real estate agency website and search for what you want - all the MLS' come up.

So.....does your flat fee come up on a search like that as a FSBO?

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sellerohboy
Original Author

17 years ago

Ahhh, thanks a lot for all the responses, things are much clearer. Knowing about not signing with a realtor for the length of the flat fee contract really changes things.

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Comments (7)

quirkyquercus
17 years ago
It was sort of an over-generalization but they aren't really wrong.

You need a member of the MLS to list your property there. Whether they get a commission or not, technically you did have to use a realtor.
quirkyquercus
17 years ago
Forgot to answer the following Q...
"So.....does your flat fee come up on a search like that as a FSBO?"

What the agents see when they get listings is a bit different than what you see at realtor.com for example and it shows more detailed information. It will show what the commissions are and there will be a blank space or zero for the listing agent. This is probably the dead give away for agents that don't like to show FSBO's
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Dear Amber, As a real estate broker myself, I wanted to share my thoughts from the "other" side and hopefully it will help you in your decision. First, once you decide which way to go ("traditional" or "flat fee") your biggest decision will be to select the Realtor that you would like to represent you. This is more important than the company name on their business card, because the agent stays pretty much the same no matter what company they work for! In making your decision, I would suggest that you look for an agent with a CRS (Council of Residential Specialists) designation if you want to work with the top 4% in real estate and/or an e-PRO if you want to work with a tech-savvy agent. In real estate, the things that differentiate the true professionals from the plethora of newbies that have appeared in the last few years are: Sales volume, real estate designations and contract expertise. The difference between the flat fee and the traditional 3% is mostly spent on things that are NOT directly related to the successful sale of a home, such as magazine advertising (this is personal agent marketing), open houses (where agents find their next buyer), etc. The Multiple Listing Service ("MLS") is truly how most properties are sold and since the same paperwork is used to close a transaction, whether a property sells at $150,000 or $1,200,000 - well, you decide whether you want to pay a percentage of your sales price or a flat fee. If you decide to go flat fee: 1. Make sure your contract lists all the services provided, especially if the agent is providing an "MLS listing only" service or if the agent will handle closing the transaction as well. Unless you are an attorney, I'd recommend you have the agent handle the paperwork. 2. Since you are saving on the listing commission, please don't offer less than 3% to the buyer's agent. Some sellers even opt to offer a bonus to the buyer's agent if they are really motivated to sell. 3. Try not to hire an agent without any credentials or someone that has just become licensed in the last 5 years. Hopefully, the agent will have worked previously in a traditional brokerage (that is usually the best way to enter real estate sales because of the training they provide). If you decide to go traditional: 1. Please find a CRS agent! At least your listing commission will go to a respected professional that shows their commitment to the industry by earning the most coveted designation in real estate. CRS agents must have a certain amount of closed sales as well as meet the education requirements, which is why only 4% have the CRS designation. Anyway, the bottom line in selling a property is price (yes, location and condition are important, but the price is adjusted accordingly). If your property is listed at the right price on the MLS with a yard sign and lockbox and you are offering a full commission to the buyer's agent, you have a good possibility of getting an offer. Once you get an offer, your agent will prove him or herself by properly representing you in the negotiation process and closing the transaction. Good luck and I wish you the best!
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I don't understand this statement: Posted by kpfeif (My Page) on Thu, Mar 22, 07 at 22:26 We did a flat-rate MLS listing for two months. It's important to understand that once you're on the MLS, you're no longer FSBO - you are listed on the MLS via a Realtor. If you buy into the MLS with a Flat fee lister - who's the realtor? Aren't you doing it yourself? essentially FSBO? Sure the flat fee company is sort of buying into the MLS as a "real estate company" but your still selling the place yourself. Another thing - What I read here and on websites about MLS confuses me. Sometimes I get the impresssion that "normal people" can't see the MLS listings. HUH? Go to any real estate agency website and search for what you want - all the MLS' come up. So.....does your flat fee come up on a search like that as a FSBO?
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When you buy into the flat fee MLS you should use a company that provides it as part of a package that includes signs, internet presence, cross listings on other websites, in addition to the MLS and realtor.com and do be sure to check around if your area has a buyers/sellers magazine - we have one that sellers can put an ad in for free - it costs a buck at just about every store and it's circulation is great. People love it! I use Ebay for small stuff, but the Bulletin Board paper for big things like cars and refrigerators, etc. Put an ad in it. Newspapers are full of ads and are expensive and yours may get lost in the shuffle so be sure about that one. You can also call different real estate companies and get their fax numbers - then fax over your ad to various real estate companies. If you have a fax/printer/scanner you can usually set them up to "blast fax" to mulitple recipients. Before you do an open house, check to make sure you are in an area where an open house is not a waste of time. Google it and after researching it, make a decision - you will be opening your house to strangers and if you get a lot of visitors you could be overwhelmed, worse yet you could also be opening your house to unsavory people who may take stuff while there, or case your house and you to come back later. In my area open houses, according to the real estate agents are a huge waste of time, but they have them because - for a variety of reasons - and when there is one up the street - he does one every other Sunday - make sure you have plenty of flyers and your exterior is spruced up. The company I use does a full color magazine that is distributed for free at all the same locations as the realtor's free magazines. I do a lot of political consulting - and I'm trying to figure out how to do a 30 spot - maybe start out with a positive message - introduce the house, the beauty, play up the good points, fancy camera angles, etc. and then run a second ad doing a "comparative" to other like houses in the neighborhood - something like "See the house at 555 Sunset Street - Too Liberal to be somone's home." ;-P I'm kidding. (I live in Alabama - standard negative commercial always ends with "don't vote for so and so, he/she is too liberal for Alabama") But wouldn't it be funny? Run for cheap on the cable channels ... Ah, sometimes the fantasy overtakes reality and you realize you are just nuts. Agent or not - House selling is hell. ;-) Good luck.
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I am familiar with the area and recently bought a home not terribly far away (not in the Woodlands and we have acreage so not comparable). That said, I think your price is too high just looking at the other houses available in the area. Whether an offer is lowball or not doesn't have much to do with how much you paid for it. We bought a house within 20 minutes or so from your house and the sellers sold it us for less than they paid for it 4 years ago. In fact, last year we sold a house that we bought in 2006 and we sold it for less than we paid for it. Yes, the Woodlands is a nice area but there are a lot of homes available in the Woodlands and quite a few of them back up to a greenbelt, are on a cul-de-sac and are landscaped and have granite, etc. Now aside from the price, you need to improve your pictures. You have 14 and I think you can have 32. I would put up a lot more pictures. I would want to see pics of the secondary bedrooms and maybe secondary bathroom, even the utility room if you have one. On your listing you show a 11x15 extra room. What is that? I would put a picture of it (or is that the sitting room attached to the master). Also put captions on the pictures. On picture 2 I don't know what that room is. Is it a study (desk is very small) or what? Picture 3 - I guess this is the dining room. Frankly with the half walls and the dining table that takes up so much space the room looks really small. Also the white is overwhelming. Just not a flattering picture. Pictures 4-6 -- great kitchen and breakfast room but the pictures are awful. They are too dark. Picture 7 - I guess this is the living room? Or is this the den? I would take a picture of each, but you only have a picture of one of them (I assume that the den and the study are different rooms. If they aren't the listing needs to be corrected). Room looks small in the pics. Pic 8 - I guess this is the master bedroom with a sitting area? Again, put captions on. The angle for the master bedroom doesn't show much. Don't try to show the master and the sitting room in one picture -- just makes the room look small. I want to see more of the master bedroom. Pic 9 - Looks bluish. Also angle of the pic doesn't do much for me. Pic 10 -- OK but I would take trash can out and retake the pic. Pic 11 and 12 -- These just serve to make your yard look really small. Pic 13 - Fairly nice but I would vary the angle a bit so you see more of the spa and less of the plant. Pic 14 - blurry
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jane_d
17 years ago
There are a couple points of common confusion here.

What "the" Multiple Listing Service is can vary from place to place. In some areas it's owned by the National Association of Realtors and in others it's a private company, and in some places more than one Service is in popular use. These are strictly subscription-only to access, and you need to pay a fee and have a real estate license to get that subscription. (So if you want to access the MLS for different states, you need to pay more than one subscription fee and hold a license in more than one state.)

This is not what people are talking about on this forum when they say they've browsed the MLS. Some advertising websites call themselves a "multiple listing service" because they show the properties for sale from "the" Multiple Listing Service, but they are not "the" Multiple Listing Service. "The" MLS is more of a database that also contains non-public information like special showing instructions, if a house is vacant, the type of contract the listing agent has with the sellers, what compensation is being offered to a buyer's agent, etc. It is to your benefit to get on "the" MLS, used by buyers' agents, if you want to attract larger numbers of buyers. Otherwise you are just on another real estate website that individual buyers may or may not see.

That said, the flat-fee services are in fact Realtors offering you reduced services for a flat fee instead of all their services for a commission. Some of them just enter you on MLS, but others handle scheduling of showings, some amount of legal paperwork, or provide the use of lock boxes for you. What exactly they offer will differ with every such service and may differ from contract to contract. You *are* essentially still FSBO, doing most of the marketing on your own, but your contract with that realtor prevents you from signing up for the services of another realtor should you decide you've had enough of trying it on your own. "The" MLS's require an exclusive contract so that no two realtors will be listing the same property.

I think kpfeif was just trying to make the point that you can't change over to using a realtor when you are in one of these flat-fee contracts. Beyond the extent that the flat-fee realtor is helping you, you are on your own.
I hope that helps!
jane_d
17 years ago
Forgot to answer "does your flat fee come up on a search like that as a FSBO?"

Yes it does. The listing realtor is named, but there's a special designation to indicate that the realtor is providing limited services, and the contact information is frequently "call the seller at..."

Is being marked a FSBO a problem? Not if you are offering competitive compensation to the buyer's agent. Real estate agents don't dislike working with FSBO's nearly as much as they dislike not getting paid fairly for their work. There's another common misunderstanding.
sweet_tea
17 years ago
I am listed in the MLS with a flat fee agency. I can cancel at any time for any reason. I searched several flat fee agencies and some allowed you to cancel and others were more strict.

Also - the agent's name and contact info show up in realtor.com and the MLS. But in the showing instructions(viewable by realtors only), the comments state for realtors to contact owner for showings, offers, questions, etc and that the realtor is just providing a flat fee listing.

Also - when the flat-fee realtor gets any calls or emails from realtor.com or MLS, then the flat fee realtor relays those to the seller. (I tested mine with another listing before I listed to be sure that the seller got the referral, and how fast.)

Also some flat fee listers allow a certain number of MLS changes, others charge a fee for each change after the first. Some allow only one photo, others post several photos.

So shop around for the flat fee MLS listing agencies.

As far as realtor.com, there is nothing in the listing that hints that I am a FSBO (unless you look at showing instructions viewable by agents.)

If I sell it on my own, I don't pay any commission but need to let the flat-fee agency know that it is under contract/sold so they can update MLS.

The sign out front and the flyers were made by me and show my contact info(but I put the MLS# on the flyers.)

Also I have my own lockbox that I bought on the www for $27.
saphire
17 years ago
Also when I view Realtor.Com there is no address. If you want traffic you need to make sure there is an address. Sometimes the map function does not work well

flat fee mls vs. fsbo confused?

sellerohboy
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flat fee mls vs. fsbo confused?

sellerohboyOriginal Author

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sellerohboy
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