Good morning. It’s time for Fan Mail Friday once again. The question we have from our seller this week is, what is a flat fee listing? I actually had two of those this week. A flat fee listing is a listing that you pay a broker to put your house or your business for sale in the MLS. Flat fee listings run around between $300 and $500 on average. The main objective of using a flat fee listing is twofold. First off is to get your property into the MLS so that the world can see it. The second is to basically save yourself half the agent commission. Now you might ask yourself, why only half if I’m selling the house myself?
Well, if you do sell it yourself, you’re going to save all the commission. But many times an agent will see the house or the business listed in the MLS, and they’ll bring you a buyer. If that agent brings you a signed contract from a buyer, then they should be compensated. Now, flat fee listing will generally have a buyer’s agent commission in there of 2.5% or 3%, basically half of what a full listing would be.
The downside to a flat fee listing is that now you are the listing agent. That means you are going to take the phone calls. You are going to arrange the showings. You are going to handle the paperwork. You’re going to get the paperwork to the title company or the lawyer who’s doing the closing.
The other lesser issue that some agents talk about, that they shouldn’t be doing this but they do, is that these agents won’t show your house. When an agent sees that “limited service”,( that’s realtor speak for a flat fee listing) they assume that that means that they’re going to have to do all the work of the listing agent and all the work of the buyer’s agent and they’re only going to get half the commission. They assume is the key word there.
Okay? But if you want to save at least half the agent’s commission and selling your home, then get a flat fee listing. Or better yet, just call Rapid Home Deals. We never charge a commission on our cash sales, and we’ll see you next Friday.