How a Flat Rate MLS Company Can Save You Thousands

For you to sell your house quickly (or at all) you need to make sure it is positioned in such a way that it's going to be seen by the largest number of buyers possible. To do this your house must be listed in your local MLS (multiple listing service). Among the easiest and cheapest ways to do this is to select a flat rate MLS service. There are lots of distinct benefits of using a flat rate MLS service over the more conventional method of selling real estate.

However, you first have to recognize how the MLS system operates. A multiple listing service is actually an online collection of houses available for a particular part of a state. Any house for sale via a real estate agent will be listed in that region's local MLS. Not to mention, real estate agents are only going to present homes to their buyers that are listed in their region's MLS. Consequently, if you need your house to sell you must be in your local MLS.

Unfortunately, the only method to get listed in MLS is by hiring the services of a realtor. You either have the choice of paying the realtor a portion of the final sale price or you can go with a flat rate MLS service that is going to allow you to pay a one time predetermined fee to get your house listed in your region's MLS.

Due to the fact that most real estate agents demand 6% of the sale price to sell your home, the savings could be quite substantial when using a flat rate MLS listing service instead. For example take a house priced at $300,000. When this home sells, the seller is going to pay the realtor $18,000 in real estate fees. If you take advantage of a flat rate MLS listing service, however, you can get your house listed in MLS for just a few hundred dollars. Obviously, if the customer brings their own realtor you have to still pay that real estate agent their half of the commission (typically 3%), but that's still a savings of almost $9,000. Plus, many flat rate MLS services even offer extras such as lockboxes, signs, and forms. Therefore, if you want to sell your home by yourself and actually want your house to sell, research some of your local realtors that offer a flat rate MLS service.