Marketing Tips
How To List Your Property For Sale By Owner
A Tutorial for For Sale By Owner
Sellers
In a real
estate transaction, there are typically two brokers; a
Listing Broker also known as the Seller's Broker and a
Selling Broker also know as a Buyer's Broker*.
Typically the Seller offers the total commission to the
Listing Broker with an understanding that the Listing
Broker will share a portion (split it) with cooperating
broker. That split may not always be 50:50. Sometimes
the Listing broker will keep more than half and
Sometimes the Listing Broker will keep less than half.
The vast majority of listings range from 5%-6% with the
Listing Broker and Selling Broker each keeping half or
2½% to 3% respectively. The Selling Broker brings the
buyer to the table so it's important to make your MLS
Listing attractive to Brokers that are working with
Buyers. As such, we don't recommend a far deviation
from the mean commission for Selling Brokers. However,
Listing Broker's commission's are fair game to negotiate
down without negative marketability. A lower Listing
Broker's commission is not likely to have any effect on
Buyers' Brokers.
1 |
Á LA CARTE
LISTINGS
Many brokers are willing to work à la
carte. An à la carte listing is one where a
seller picks the services he/she wants and is
not forced to take full service. An analogy
might be a Chevrolet where you can start out
with a base model at a reduced price and pick
the options you want vs. a Cadillac where all
the bells and whistles come standard. With the
Chevy, you can save money on options not wanted
or needed. Specifically, since 80% of homes are
sold through MLS and it's one of a broker's
least expensive tools, forsaking some of the
other services can save you a fortune. So
listing à la carte is a quick way to lower your
brokerage fee. |
2 |
NON-CONTINGENT FEE STRUCTURES
Real Estate typically has a contingent fee
structure; you only pay a fee contingent on a
sale and if the property does not sell you pay
nothing. Only, the successes pay for the
failures. Nobody works for free. So when a
house does not sell, the Broker has to earn
his/her keep elsewhere which is the listings
that sell. So it stands to reason that if a
Seller just took the risk and agreed to pay
regardless of success, the Seller would save
money when a sale occurs because he/she would
not be paying a fee that was averaged across the
successes and failures. |
3 |
FLAT
FEES
A REALTOR®
does not work harder or invest significantly
more into listing a $3 million dollar house vs.
a $300,000 house yet the fee is much higher when
you pay a percentage of the sale price. There
is nothing wrong with asking your REALTOR®
accept a Flat Fee for your MLS Listing.
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Now combine what's been illustrated in #1, #2
and #3 and you have Flat Fee MLS. The Perfect Model for
Selling Real Estate.
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