When not to use a Flat-Fee MLS Listing Service
Dave Ramsey absolutely 100% beyond a shadow of a doubt nailed it in his article titled “2 Crazy Ways to Sell Your Home (That You Should Avoid)“. Dave made some excellent points in his article (it’s worth the 5 minute read), we’re here to give a little color commentary on some of the key points.
Take Full Advantage of The Power of The Internet
Thanks to the internet, selling your home is a lot easier than it was even a decade ago.
The internet is responsible for a whopping 50% of all home sales, another 28% comes from licensed agents, 7% from yard signs, and the rest of the numbers are less impressive from there but that’s 85% of all sales. The catch is that FSBO website that charges $99 for a “listing on their website” isn’t going to cut it – you need the power of the local MLS (HAR.com had over 850 million page views in 2019).
Let that sink in for a bit – 850 million page views, and that doesn’t even take into account the curated searches set up specifically for qualified buyers by Realtors®.
UPDATED August 14, 2021: HAR.com had over 1.1 billion page views in 2020, that's an additional 268 million page views over 2019.
Don’t Get Stuck With A Limited Service Listing
With a flat-fee MLS listing service, you’ll be on your own when it comes to the nitty gritty aspects of a real estate transaction.
Most budget priced flat-fee MLS listings available on the internet are what’s called a “limited service” listing – nothing more than a way to get your property listed in MLS. After that you’re truly on your own. The trick is they don’t call it a limited service listing, instead they spell out what they will do and just don’t mention what they won’t do. Sneaky sneaky.
We only offer full service listings – that means we do everything a traditional agent does except visit with you in person or anything that requires physically appearing at your property. We’ll help you negotiate the terms of your contracts, formulate counter offers, answer all your questions, give you pricing assistance, staging advice, help with showing scheduling, and whole a lot more.
Limited Service Listing? Brother Can I Interest You In A Yard Sign?
Some flat-fee services even charge you an extra fee to load more than six photos on the MLS site.
You got a stellar deal on your limited service flat fee MLS listing – the lowest priced one out there. Get ready for all the hidden fees for everything else you’ll need to get your property sold. Most budget priced flat-fee MLS listing services also charge you for listing changes, yard signs, lockboxes, open house advertising, photo descriptions, eSignatures for contracts, extra listing photos over the minimum required, and even to add required docs like your Seller’s Disclosure to the listing. Talk about death by paper cut.
By the time you’re done adding all the extras to your listing from one of those other brokers, you could have just purchased one of our listings where that’s all included included and more.
Don’t Leave Money On The Table By Using An AVM
Online home value sites often miss the mark when it comes to accurate pricing.
This one gets us right in the feels and Dave hit another home run with this statement. Using an AVM (Automated Valuation Model) is foolish at best even in states where the AVM has access to actual sales data. In Texas, for example, where Zillow (a very popular AVM site) doesn’t have access to actual sales data it’s like giving money away. You’ll either be over-priced by so much that you’ll sit on the market for-ev-er or you’ll be underpriced and sell so fast that you’ll realize after closing how much you could have made.
Thankfully, with us, you’ll be dealing with a certified Pricing Strategy Advisor (a NAR recognized professional designation). We’ll use actual sold data to determine a list price for your house that should get you the best price given your current market and property condition.
Pick A Pro The First Time You List
It pays to work with a pro.
Yes it does, Dave. Yes. It. Does. We also can’t recommend working with a broker that’s not willing to put in the time and effort to help you price and market your house. You can always find less expensive “deals” out there, but are they really deals if you can’t get ahold of an agent when you have a question or you wind up leaving money on the table or spending forever waiting for your house to sell?
Order a Creekstone Real Estate flat fee listing from us today and let us wow you with our service from contract to close.
