Listing Your Own Home: Using a Flat Fee Listing Service

The Fact: In order to list your home on the MLS, you’ll need to use a licensed real estate brokerage.

The Question: Do I Use a Flat Fee Brokerage OR a Dedicated Realtor?

Beginning my real estate career as an investor in the middle of the “Great” Recession, I learned how to be creative and cut my costs dramatically. I would often use Flat Fee Services selling my rental properties because “I knew what I was doing.” Because I “already knew everything,” I was satisfied with Listing and Waiting. After all, these were income properties making me $ while I waited. That being said, I was still at a disadvantage in the negotiation process, more on that later.

For those selling their own homes, they’re faced with another dilemma:

TIME

So…here’s the deal:

*2 scenarios where you might use a Flat Fee Service and definitely when NOT to:

Your Average (Basic) Home: Needs a structured marketing campaign to give it a boost and out in front of more buying eyes.

Your Unique (Outlier) Home: Stands out from the rest of the pack. It may not be a beach house with an Infinity Pool in the backyard, but it may have a “mother-in-law” apartment, a flawless master bathroom, or a designer kitchen.

Can you guess which is which?

The Unique Home doesn’t need the marketing expertise of an agent as much as The Basic Home, however there are still potential pitfalls to come…

*The variable that alters this basic rule is where you’re at in Your Local Market Cycle.

You may have had one of these perceptions recently:

Mentality #1: Realtors Cost Too Much, Don’t Do Enough
Mentality #2: We’ll Have More Money Left to Build Our Next Home
Mentality #3: We’ve Done It Before, It’s Not So Bad, It All Went Smoothly…

From the very beginning, you’re working with reduced leverage in negotiations, opening the door to buyer’s agents trying to take advantage of the situation.

“He was trying to screw us over!”

In a split second…

You can leave money on the table in negotiations (usually not even realize it),

You can be the victim of TMI (giving Too Much Information),

You can reduce your price when you could have offered credits or concessions,

You could have managed a “Best and Final Round” for multiple offers,

You could have invested in better marketing strategies saving time and money,

You could have remained cool, avoided emotions when the buyer’s agent pressured you.

Sooner rather than later, you’ll have a WOOPS moment, and it’ll cost you.

This is what an Agent means when he says, “I can get you a better price to cover my fees!”

– Right from the start, they’re at a better position of leverage. Shielding your weaknesses, your home’s weaknesses, calling a buyer’s agent’s bluff, removing emotion from counter-offers, suggesting better solutions in critical millisecond-moments, and more.

THE CASE FOR THE FLAT FEE:

The Hot House: where everyone is beating down your door just to peak inside or making offers sight unseen, you may be justified.
Income Property: where time isn’t against you, it may make sense.

If you decide that this is the option for you, ARI Realty is the service I’ve used ($245 up front, $155 at closing). It’s a bare package but they offer decent email support. They have other packages but I wouldn’t recommend them.

THE CASE AGAINST THE FLAT FEE:

The main issue with the flat fee service is, you’re on your own during the “pivot points.”

These pivot points, are important moments when marketing, price, or terms need to change. You’ll need to adapt and you’ll have to rely on generic real estate blog posts to save you.

It all adds up quick and can easily amount to what you would have paid for an agent. Unfortunately these are now sunken “Opportunity Costs” rather than expenses.

What it comes down to:

With an owner becoming their own agent overnight OR a “Discount Agent/Brokerage” offering anything beyond their Flat Fee, there’s a void created between “the basics” and an effective and efficient Marketing Campaign of consistency and conformity.

Conveniently 😉 here’s where my plug comes in:

An Agent of Value has built systems to cater to advanced strategies. A discount agent or brand isn’t built for Advanced Value or it’d go out of business pretty fast. To be honest, that’s why I can’t compete with their discount services (neither do I want to) and why they can’t compete with me, or another value oriented agent. If you need help navigating the waters, send me a TEXT or contact me HERE. I welcome the challenge and hope that you can trust me to be your real estate advocate.

I haven’t been in business for 30 years, but I act like it.

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