Money Magazine reported today that buyers who wait to buy a home may be losing out on some very important incentives. First-time home buyer and move-up tax credits worth $8,000 and $6,500, respectively, expire April 30. Buyers who qualify get a dollar-for-dollar reduction in taxes or a cash payment if they don’t pay enough taxes to cover the credit.
Additionally, if the Federal Reserve stops buying mortgage-backed securities at the end of March, 30-year rates, will almost certainly rise to more than 6 percent. Coupled with the fact that about 30 percent of housing markets are in the midst of rising prices and the current market is probably as good as it’s going to get for home buyers for the forseeable future.
I’m often asked if there is really any difference between flat fee companies and whether there’s anything to compare, other than price, when selecting a flat fee MLS provider. The answer, of course, depends on the owner/seller’s motivation. If you just want to list or advertise your property for sale in the MLS, then cost really is your only concern. However, if you want to actually sell your home, then here are some other factors to consider:
- How long has the company been in business?
The market does a pretty good of weeding out bad eggs. If a flat-fee MLS broker has been in business for a number of years, there’s at least some reason to believe that other sellers have found them to be trustworthy and capable of doing what they say they’ll do. Especially if they’ve survived a couple of down markets and the recent real estate recession, the company has established a business that’s robust enough to succeed regardless of market conditions. Since the real estate market downturn, lots of agents have taken to flat-fee MLS listing just to be able to stay in the business. So new flat-fee MLS listing companies are poping up everyday. However, if the company just started last month and they can’t give you the names or addresses of lots of other properties they’ve actually SOLD, they probably won’t be able to provide the level of service and support you need. Their track record for successfully assisting by owner sellers hasn’t really been established.
- What kind of support do they provide?
A good flat-fee company should provide several methods of support. While most online companies want to communicate through email, this may not be the method that works best for you. Top online flat-fee MLS listing providers, like Bloomkey.com, offer telephone support, an Online Help Desk, Online Chat and dynamic FAQ’s so that you can get the support you need when you need it.
- What other websites will your property appear on and what strategic partnerships have they established? A good flat-fee company should be able to have your home or property listed on ALL of the leading real estate websites. Since over 80% of buyers now start their search for a home online, it pays to be listed everywhere buyers might be looking. While all flat-fee brokers list properties on Realtor.com and the Broker IDX by virtue of the MLS feed distribution, few have taken the time to establish relationships and proprietary RSS/XML feeds to the larger real estate portals like Trulia.com, Zillow.com, Yahoo Real Estate and GoogleBase, to name a few. Bloomkey has even created an automated posting system on Craigslist to provide your property with an HTML formatted advertisement on the world’s largest classified website.
- What other tools does the broker provide to help make sure that your property not only gets listed, but has a better than average chance of selling?
Any agent who has been in the business for any length of time (or owner who has sold a number of properties) will tell you that it takes more than a sign in the yard and an ad in the MLS to sell a home. If you take the average online flat-fee MLS company today, you’ll find that most of them offer little more than the opportunity to take your money online and stick your property’s data and photos into the MLS – never to be heard from again. They’re really more like online business cards with a cash register. Very few have gone to the expense and trouble of creating feature-filled back end web applications that give sellers access to online real estate selling tools and services to assist with the home selling process.
These are just a few of the questions owners should be asking when determining with whom to list their properties. Remember, anyone can list your home for sale, but that’s probably not where you want it to stop. A successful sale requires more than minimal effort – especially in today’s buyer’s market.
For more information on what top flat-fee MLS listing companies can provide in terms of service and benefits, visit Bloomkey.com
About the Author
Lawrence Bunnell is a partner at Bloomkey. In 1997, Mr. Bunnell co-founded the first national online real estate brokerage (and the first real estate company to ever become licensed in all 50 states). He has been responsible for creating several online flat fee real estate companies and is largely responsible for the advent of the Internet based flat-fee MLS listing segment of the real estate industry. Mr. Bunnell started his career in real estate in 1984. Prior to creating the online flat-fee MLS listing industry, Mr. Bunnell was one of the nation’s top selling real estate brokers at the RE/MAX, ERA, and Coldwell-Banker real estate franchises.
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Posted in FSBO, Flat Fee MLS, Flat Fee Real Estate Brokerage, Flat+Fee, For Sale By Owner, Real Estate, flat fee, flat fee MLS borkers, flat fee MLS brokerages, flat fee MLS companies, flat fee MLS listing company, flat fee MLS service, flat fee broker, flat fee brokerage, flat fee brokers, flat fee companies, flat fee listing broker, flat fee mls broker, flat fee mls brokers, flat fee mls company, flat fee mls listing, flat fee mls providers, flat fee realty, flat fee services, flat rate, flat rate broker, flat rate mls, flat rate realty, for sale by owner tips, fsbo guide, fsbo seller
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The “mulitple listing system”, called the MLS, gives the broadest exposure possible to homes for sale. In today’s competitive market, you need the most marketing exposure possible, but attempting to sell without the benefit of the MLS can be a like trying to sell shares of stock without the stock exchange. Or, proverbially, “like trying to find a needle in a haystack”. Advertising to the public is a high cost proposition and since you only have one property to sell, the economies of scale work against you. Realtors® have the benefit of having thousands of properties to sell. The MLS creates an efficient marketing system through which Realtors® can cooperate to assist each other in selling each other’s listings.
And through the Realtors® trade organization, the National Association of Realtors®, an MLS listing also gets exposure on Realtor.com, the nation’s leading real estate web portal, you’ll reach even more potential buyers when your property is listed in the MLS by owner. According to a recent survey, over 75% of buyers now start their search for a home on the Internet, most of them on Realtor.com.
Now you can list your home or property in the same MLS used by Realtors® without having to pay a listing commission. List by owner on the MLS with a flat fee MLS listing company like Bloomkey® and you can have the best of both worlds. More exposure to help you sell your home for the highest possible price and still retain the right to sell on your own and not pay a commission.
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Posted in Flat Fee MLS, Local MLS, MLS, MLS, MLS Service, MLS entry, Real Estate, by owner, flat fee MLS borkers, flat fee MLS companies, flat fee mls broker, flat fee mls brokers, flat fee mls company, flat fee mls listing, home sale, home sales, home seller, home sellers, home selling, home selling alternatives, limited service providers, limited service real estate, list house, list property, listing agent, listing broker, low cost real estate, mls entry only, mls listing, mls listing service, mls listings, mls only, multi list, multiple listing, multiple listing service, mutliple listing service
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Tagged by owner mls, Flat Fee MLS, mls listing, real estate marketing
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Real Estate Discounter Makes its Mark
In a traditionally strong real estate market, Florida homeowners are valuing the added equity they keep through utilizing the services of flat fee MLS and discount brokerages. In its first year Expert Realty has reportedly grabbed 5 percent of the market share in single family homes under $500,000 in Palm Beach and Broward counties. On a daily basis the market share of flat fee MLS brokers and discount brokerages is growing as consumers are now finding alternative methods to marketing their homes effectively without having to pay out the traditional 5 to 6 percent in realtor commissions.
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