A Realtor marketing plan or a FSBO
marketing plan are normally viewed as mutually exclusive
alternatives. With the Realtors traditional
"Exclusive Right To Sell" type listing agreement,
they are ordinarily mutually exclusive since the home owner
traditionally gives up their right to market the property when
they do that listing agreement with the realtor.
However, before you settle on the marketing plan of your
choice, you should evaluate and consider a third recently
available alternative. This alternative is sometimes
called a Realtor Flat Fee MLS Listing Service. We call it a
Hybrid FSBO - Realtor marketing plan. The property owner
literally pursues both methods of marketing through the
Realtors MLS and FSBO simultaneously. This can be
accomplished several ways, in each case the listing agreement
will specifically reserve the right to sell the home yourself
and avoid Selling or Buyers agent commissions. One
method, by way of example, is to have a Realtor list your
property for sale in the Realtors MLS by a method known as
"Exclusive Agency", with a limitation on the
"Scope" of the agency such that the Listing
Realtor's obligations and services are basically limited to
Listing the property in the MLS. This type of listing
agreement can provide that the owner will have the continuing
right to market the property themselves and avoid further
commissions altogether if the owner finds a buyer from their
own marketing efforts. This Listing service can be
provided for a fixed dollar flat fee, instead of a listing
commission to the Listing Agent, paid in advance at the time
the listing is made. All these terms are Negotiable,
provided you can find a Realtor "willing" to
negotiate. Under this "fixed fee type" of
"Exclusive Agency" listing contract there would be
no additional "commission" ever paid to the Listing
Realtor, neither in the event of a sale by another
"Buyers Agent Realtor" nor a FSBO sale by the
property owner. Under these circumstances, all other
Realtors can then try to sell your home to their potential
buyers and earn their normal (often 3%) commission (if you
elect to offer that to them) as a "Buyers Agent".
Sellers can offer these Buyer Agent Realtors whatever percent
commission they desire, but owners should consider that
offering less than the traditional 3% could affect these
Buyers Agent Realtors "degree" of interest in
showing your property to their customers. So in this
EXAMPLE, instead of 6% commission, you would pay the fixed
dollar listing fee and the 3% Buyers Agent commission if and
only if you sell a home to a buyer who was brought to
your property by a Buyers Agent Realtor. Anyone
using this method should seriously consider requiring each
"Buyers Agent" Realtor to accompany each of their
potential buyers who come to view the property and keep a
WRITTEN LOG of the names of each Realtor and their prospective
buyer and the date they viewed the property along with the
Realtors initials on that log. This could be very useful
in the event of any dispute with or between Realtors about
which, if any, brought the ultimate buyer to see your property
and is entitled to earn the 3% commission. You should
also keep a log of everyone's name and date that came to see
your property from your FSBO efforts as well. It is not
uncommon for prospective buyers to contact several Realtors in
the process of searching for property as well as looking into
property advertised FSBO. If the Realtor does not
accompany the prospective buyer or if you do not keep records,
you may not know for sure who, if anyone, is entitled to be
paid the Buyers Agent commission. If you sell your
property yourself from your own advertising efforts or your
Yard
Signs, you do not have to pay the 3% Buyers Agent
commission. In effect you are paying a "Flat
Listing Fee" instead of the normal Listing Realtors 3%
commission, offering Buyers Agents whatever Commission you
desire, and you have the option of selling your property FSBO
without paying that Buyers Agent commission. The trade
off is that since you only pay a modest fixed listing fee, the
listing realtor will likely limit the "scope" of the
agency such that in effect you will get no transaction
assistance or advice from the listing Realtor except possibly
a Comparative Market Analysis report. The listing
Realtor is merely granted authorization to list your property
with the MLS so it will be available for all other Realtors
who are working with potential buyers to try to sell and earn
the "Buyers Agent" commission you offer them.
The upside is you can continue to market your property FSBO at
the same time and if you find a buyer before the Buyers Agent
Realtors do, you pay no commission to them. By doing
this listing agreement with a realtor, the MLS will permit the
Realtor to give you a CMA Report. This Comparable Market
Analysis, or property valuation report, reviews the actual
prior sale prices of recent "comparable" MLS sales
in your area along with the details of those comparable MLS
sales so YOU can determine Yourself just how
"comparable" these sales really are.
These CMA reports are intended to "Assist" in
determining an asking price. They do not contain the
prior sales price information for all property transactions
(since the MLS does not have FSBO sales price information) and
can Never just be taken at face value, they are however a
valuable source of some of the information you need to
competently decide how to price your property.
Considering that this Flat Fee
Realtor MLS alternative
allows for both the increased exposure to potential buyers who
may be working only with a realtor (at a cost to the seller of
3% commission rather than 6%) and the continuing opportunity
for the owner to sell the property FSBO and still avoid
Realtor commissions entirely if the owner finds a buyer first,
this is indeed an alternative which property owners should
research, become knowledgeable about and consider Before you
settle on Your Marketing Plan. In the above described
scenario, owners should understand that there is only
"Limited" Agency with the Listing Realtor and NO
Agency with the "Buyers Agent" Realtors. This
means that the"Buyers Agent" Realtors do NOT Work
For The Seller as many people commonly think that all Realtors
do. These "Buyer Agent" Realtors do not have
the same customary responsibilities towards the property owner
that a "Listing-Agent" or a "Sub-Agent "
Selling Realtor would normally have. Dealing with these
"Buyer Agent" Realtors is more like dealing with a
potential buyer who might respond to your FSBO marketing
efforts. Any owner interested in this approach should
fully research and understand these differences in the
Realtors duties and responsibilities and consider getting an
attorney to review your sales contracts with any of these
Buyer Agents before you sign them (having an attorney lined up
to review your sales contract, or better yet to prepare one
for you in advance, is a good idea anyway for all non-real
estate professionals). and this form has some
information about these "Buyers Agent" Realtors.
These rules about Agency and their consequences will vary
considerably from state to state, the Texas TREC form is one
general example of the nature of these rules. Be sure to
determine how these issues affect your rights and obligations
in your specific state.
One problem with this Flat Fee MLS
marketing method is finding a LOCAL Flat
Fee Realtor that will do it. Dealing directly with a
Local Realtor who lives, works, and has a wealth of personal
knowledge about marketing homes in your specific area has a
number of obvious benefits for home sellers. A lot of
realtors "Talk" about discount listing services
these days primarily as a way to get customers into their
offices to sell them their Full Priced Services, many others
idea of "Discount Commissions" is to reduce their
normal 6% to 4.5% or 5%, while Most Realtors will not consider
this type of an arrangement at all, since it runs contrary to
their traditional practices. We offer these Realtor Flat
Fee MLS Listing Package Deals in coordination with FSBO
Friendly Local Realtors all around the country in order to
combine the benefits of this new marketing method with the
normal FSBO marketing strategy. The result is a Powerful
Marketing Plan which offers sellers a Lot of Flexibility at a
fraction of the cost of most Discount Realtor Listing
services.
Our users should understand that we
do not recommend any particular Marketing Plan, either The
Realtor plan, The FSBO Plan, or the Hybrid FSBO - Realtor
plan. Each individual seller will have different
needs, limitations, or preferences. Our purpose is
simply to assist users in identifying the various
alternatives, evaluating those alternatives for yourself,
and obtaining additional information about those home selling
alternatives for your own individual consideration to
determine which Plan best suites your preferences and
objectives. If Your Marketing Plan then requires any
Advertising, FSBOAdvertising ™ is here to provide you an
efficient and valuable addition to your Advertising program
which is designed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness
of WHICHEVER Marketing Plan You Choose. In reality, all
property is For Sale By Owner. Some owners choose the
Realtor Marketing plan, some choose the FSBO Marketing plan,
and lately quite a few are choosing the Flat Fee MLS Hybrid
Marketing plan.
MLSEntryOnly
does not own or operate the Independent Licensed Real Estate
Companies who provide these services. An experienced
Licensed Real Estate Broker serving your area will be
providing these MLS listing services according to the Listing
Contract you will enter into directly with them in connection
with ordering this service.
