flat fee MLS listing saves home sellers money

Today’s market calls for motivated sellers. If you want to sell in a market alongside foreclosures and short sales you have to be of the mindset that says we’re going to price this property in terms of the market, not in terms of what the market was 6-9 months ago. If you need to sell, pricing your home is the most important aspect of marketing.

That’s where flat fee MLS listing comes into play. Flat fee MLS listing allows you to sell your property without giving up a large chunk of your real estate equity in brokerage commissions. With flat fee MLS you can sell your property for less because you’ll only pay a fee of around $400 instead of 6% of the sales price.

Now rather than giving away your money to real estate broker commissions you can adjust your price and sell competitively, even in a buyer’s market! That’s why more home and property sellers now choose flat fee MLS listing than ever before.

There’s only one profession that you’ll find that compensates itself in such a strange and unjustifiable manner as the real estate profession. Compensation isn’t based on experience. Most agents charge the same 6% commission when they’ve been in the business for 20 years as they do when they’re brand new. It’s not based on hours worked. Because you’ll pay the same commission whether the agent sells your home in 1 day as you would if it takes a year or longer to sell. It’s not based on effort. The agent that sits back and waits for agent members of the MLS system to sell the property earns the same amount as the agent who canvasses the neighborhoods to try to find a buyer for your home. And it’s not even based on the amount of money invested by the agent in advertising in marketing, because you’ll pay the same commission when your agent spends no money on advertising as you will when they spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars in marketing.

So if it’s not based on experience, time, effort or investment, just what is the basis for why you’re paying in most cases an amount equal the cost of a new car* to sell your home? Well the only reason seems to be is that the huge commission you pay is the amount that it takes for traditional real estate agent to stay in business. You see, after paying expenses of being in the business (licensing, desk fees, brokerage splits, phone bills, gas, auto, etc) most agents don’t really end up making all that much money (on average). The average agent only makes around $36,000 a year or less depending on who you talk to. Unless they charge you an exhorbitant amount they just can’t afford to stay in business. Most agents sell fewer than 10 homes a year. If they charge less than 6% their not going to be able to make a living, pay the mortgage, put food on the table, etc…

So how is this your problem, you might ask? Why should you have to pay so much because the system that’s been set up to compensate real estate agents doesn’t make sense? Why don’t real estate agents charge like other professionals so that the amount of time, effort and money they spend is commensurate with the services they actually perform?

Good questions! The solution it seems would be for agents to charge by the hour or on a flat-fee basis. Then the system would make sense for both consumer and professional. Where can you find service like that today? Bloomkey.com offers licensed ‘a la carte’ real estate services for a flat-fee. You can choose just the real estate services you want and need without having to pay for a bundle of services you don’t need. So now, if your house sells in less than a week, you don’t have to give your real estate agent a new car.

*Sometimes a luxury car at that!