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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For sale by owner advertising has changed along with the real estate marketing landscape in general. Today’s marketing of real estate has expanded signficantly from a “sign in the yard and an ad in the paper”. Internet advertising allows by owner sellers access to distribution channels that circumnavigate the globe. What used to cost home sellers a good deal of money with very limited reach has now become far more cost efficient along with the ability to reach millions of potential buyers.
Bloomkey now offers for sale by owner sellers the option of several marketing distribution channels from which to launch a property marketing campaign.
- The Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, offers sellers access to the real estate agents and brokers in their local areas.
- The Broker IDX is a system through which brokers who own real estate websites show properties that are listed in the MLS to the public.
- Realtor.com, the nation’s number 1 ranked website, has it’s own set of distribution partners who receive and display property listing data.
- ListHub is a company that aggregates data from MLSs around the country and sends that information to leading real estate websites like Yahoo Real Estate, AOL Real Estate, Walmart, Vast and many others.
- Bloomkey has it’s own distribution partnerships with websites like Zillow.com, Trulia.com, Google and many others.
Companies like Bloomkey give by owner sellers a one-stop marketing resource for selling real estate. Instead of hunting all over the Internet for property listing websites, sellers can enter their property information and upload photos one time and have their properties appear on all of the major real estate marketing distribution channels. In fact, many of the leading distribution channels are not avaialble to the public directly. Companies like Bloomkey make marketing properties for sale an economical and time savings venture.
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Posted in FSBO, For Sale By Owner, Local MLS, MLS entry, Real Estate, Real Estate Market, Selling My Home, advertising, by owner, flat fee MLS service, flat fee mls company, flat fee mls providers, for sale by owner tips, fsbo guide, fsbo seller, home sale, home selling, home selling alternatives, list house, list property, mls entry only, sale by owner, sell a home, sell home, sell house, sell my home online, sell your home, sell your house, selling a home, selling a home by owner, selling by owner, selling home, selling in a buyers market, selling privately, selling your home
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Tagged by owner marketing, For Sale By Owner, fsbo advertising, home marketing, online real estate, real estate marketing, selling a home
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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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Flat fee MLS is one of the best ways if you are planning for a sale of your property. Believe me, for I did it and had got a positive result while selling my house. If you want a price that is worth your home or you are in search of home owner rebates, then the flat fee MLS is surely going to help you in a big way.
Some of the advantages of flat fee MLS are as follows:
1) It is comparatively cheaper to the traditional real estate listing.
2) You can share wide information about the property you are intending to sell
3) The viewer will be able to see the property live as it allows posting of photographs
4) The people from the real estate will also be aware that your home is under the ‘for sale by owner’ category. This makes the sale faster
5) You will have the option to post open houses too through flat fee MLS
6) On sale of your property, you are not required to make payments to the agent of the buyer.
7) There is also no question of payment to the agent of the seller
Try it now!
By Manager
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Posted in Find Real Estate, Flat Fee MLS, For Sale By Owner, agent, discoun mls, discount MLS, discount MLS broker, flat fee, flat fee MLS companies, flat fee MLS listing company, flat fee mls broker, flat fee mls company, flat fee mls listing, flat fee mls providers, for sale, home buying rebates, home for sale
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Tagged flat fee, Flat Fee MLS, flat fee mls agent, flat fee mls online, For Sale By Owner, MLS, Real Estate, real estate agent
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Flat fee MLS versus a traditional agent
When listing your home with a flat fee MLS broker you are essentially acting as your own listing agent assuming responsibilities normally handled by an agent. You will handle all showing requests, handle the marketing of the home – classifieds, etc, and negotiate the purchase offer. And once you sell your home you will immediately question why any agent would ever get 5-7 percent to sell a home. I think you will find it considerably easier than you thought.
The increase in home prices and recent market conditions have lead consumers to try a new method that provides the best of both worlds – it provides invaluable marketing exposure through the MLS while homeowners maintain all right of a for sale by owner. With the savings sellers experience in realtor commissions they would not otherwise realize, they have an opportunity to run their own marketing campaigns. Nowadays, most flat fee MLS providers provide many of the same marketing tools a full-service agent would provide like a yard signs, directionals, comparative market analysis (CMA) for pricing help, home warranties, virtual tours, realtor.com showcases, home flyers, home web pages, closing checklists, contract negotiations, and many other tools.
So what is the first question you ask a Realtor when conducting the listing interview? More than likely it is, "how are you going to market my home and where is my listing going to be visible to the public?" With flat fee MLS you control all aspects of the transaction; you are in the driver seat! Because sellers normally only pay between $400-$600 to a flat fee listing broker, it is almost foolish not commit some of that savings to an aggressive marketing campaign that will maximize your homes potential. Even if you spend a few hundred in classified ads, postcards, etc. you are still savings thousands more than listing with a traditional full-service agent. Spending a few more dollars to a flat fee MLS company that provides a Realtor.com Showcase listings may be advantageous as homes with additional photos and virtual tours are viewed 300 percent more often by the searching public.
See Also
When selling your home know exactly what services you are getting
As a home seller nothing is more important than knowing exactly what services you are getting from your agent. With flat fee MLS companies all services are made available on an a la carte basis so sellers know what to and not to expect. If you are considering listing with a full serivce agent be thorough. You don’t want to sacrifice thousands of dollars in equity to receive the same services you can get for a fraction of the cost. There are many full-service agents out there that don’t do anymore than list the home in the MLS and wait for a sale. When you consider that you will be paying out 3 percent of your home’s final sales price to compensate a full-service listing agent you should weigh all the options. Is an agent really going to do $10,000 or $12,000 worth of work. Before you sacrifice that much money in equity, you may be wise to list your home as a for sale by owner in the local MLS through alternatives like flat fee or discount brokers, where you can control the advertising aspect of the sale.
Real estate agent among the least respected occupations
Has anyone seen the T-Mobile cell phone commercial depicting the real estate agent blowing through her monthly minutes while speaking to her clients in clichés and outrageous embellishments? It seems to sum up the public’s overall perception of real estate agents as they are among the most reviled professionals, ranking right at the top with used car salesman. The funny thing is, they live up to it everyday. As a flat fee MLS company, we witness such unethical business practices first hand. Consumers are told fictitious horror stories about lawsuits (which can be avoided by for sale by owners through the use of real estate attorneys or real estate broker consultation), told their homes aren’t listed in the realtor MLS (like there is another type of MLS), told agents won’t show their home, and told they cannot find their home on the MLS among a multitude of other outlandish stories. It really is a shame a commercial with such an offensive message can be so accurate.
Realtor.com offers unique and necessary marketing exposure
With over 35.2 million unique visitors Realtor.com topped the list of most visited websites in the real estate industry. Marketing exposure is the most important aspect of getting your home sold. If you are trying to sell For Sale By Owner (FSBO) you are not only missing out on over 75% of the local real estate market through the MLS but you are robbing your home of the valuable online marketing exposure created by public websites like Realtor.com. If you are trying to save on real estate commissions by selling your home FSBO a flat fee MLS broker is the answer. Through a flat fee MLS company you will be listed in the local MLS for a one-time low fee providing the opportunity to appear on public websites maximizing your homes exposure.
