Let’s face it, there is only one reason to sell your own home: to save money. The owner’s decision to sell your property allows the owner a “potential” savings of 6% on real estate fees. Last year, the median home in the United States was about $ 270,000, so the “potential” savings are over $ 16,000. Here’s the real estate check: Less than 14% actually realize those savings. The remaining 86% save between 3% and nothing; most save absolutely nothing. Why? The answer, in my opinion, is the unfortunate “all or nothing attitude” of the typical For Sale by Owner. The biggest challenge for an FSBO is effective marketing. Effective marketing costs money! Spend little, save a lot! If you could spend $ 500 and increase your odds of selling your home to 85% and still save a significant amount of money, would you consider it?

Most FSBOs buy a lawn sign – a good move, according to the National Association of Realtors, based on hundreds of thousands of annual sales, 14% of home buyers saw the “For Sale” sign first, a very profitable marketing tool considering you can buy one at LOWES for $ 10. So how do you reach the other 86% of your potential buyers? Too often, FSBOs live and die by the $ 10 sign. When the $ 10 sign fails, most go to a full-service real estate agent and agree to pay you 6% of the sales price. Make sense? Not for me! The other common unsold FSBO mistake is lowering the selling price – the “don’t sell, you must be priced too high” mentality. Lowering the sales price is a more accurate compensation for the lack of effective marketing. Real estate agents will tell you that FSBOs typically sell for less than the real estate listed. I think it’s a combination of two things, one in which the seller passes a portion of the real estate commission savings to the buyer to facilitate a quicker sale and the all too common unnecessary price reduction. The analogy I often draw is this: if you park a 2008 Corvette in your garage, put a $ 1000 price tag on it and close the door, guess what, it won’t sell, why? Because nobody knows it’s there! You can go out to the garage after a month and drop the price to $ 500 – guess what – STILL NOT SOLD!

So what is the solution? Simple – Flat Rate MLS! What is the MLS Flat Fee and how does it help you save money? Flat Fee MLS is a service provided by a licensed real estate agent who simply lists your property on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) for a “Flat Fee” instead of the typical 3% listing agent commission. A typical “full service” real estate service charges 6% – half of which (3%) goes to the listing agent – the other half (3%) goes to the sales agent. With a flat rate MLS you eliminate the listing agent and their fee and only pay the sales agent if you sell your home; you still have the option to sell your property yourself and pay no commissions.

Flat Fee MLS accomplishes two VERY IMPORTANT things: one, it increases the odds of selling your home six times (14% vs. 85%), and second, it exposes your property to a strong and professionally trained sales force of 2 million. It also gives you a very real chance to save 3% off the sale price!

The fact is, if you don’t sell your house, you save absolutely NOTHING, more than 85% of FSBOs fail, they fail because they are not marketed effectively. Buyers don’t even know the property is for sale unless they stop by and notice your $ 10 sign! 85% of all homes sold in the United States are listed on MLS! Pretty convincing statistics! Therefore, you can list your property in the MLS through a flat rate agent and save the 3% listing agent fee; keep in mind that the median home sale is about $ 270,000, so 3% is around $ 8,000.00, or you can waste your time Virtually useless open doors, $ 10 billboards, and $ 200 classified ads, what more likely they will fail and then hire their favorite real estate agent and pay 6%.

Here’s a real-life real account – (note names have been changed to protect innocents) – Barbara lists her Florida home on FreeFSBO.com for $ 205,000 – receives free online listing, sign of free grass and a free Sale By Owner consultation with a recognized Internet Marketing Expert and FSBO. Part of the FSBO Marketing Consultation is an introduction to Flat Fee MLS and how it works. A month later, without spending a penny to market the property, Barbara resigns and hires a full-service agent and agrees by contract to pay 6% of the sale price to a real estate agent (a “friend”) who also owns her. convinces me to lower it. selling price at $ 199,900. In one month, has Barbara gone from unrealistically saving the total real estate fee of $ 12,000 to giving up $ 17,000? That is if you get a full price offer!

A publicly traded agent does one thing of value and one thing only: they put their home on the MLS! They then put up a $ 10 sign in your front yard, hold a couple of Open Houses *, and usually spend the duration of the listing trying to convince you to lower the sale price so another agent can sell it and they can collect. its 3%.

Bottom line; Don’t wait to spend some cash on cash marketing, list your FSBO with a Flat FEE MLS agent right out of the box! In fact, save money instead of dreaming about it. 85% of all homes SOLD are listed on the MLS. Do I need to say more? Do not under any circumstances hire a full service real estate agency!

* Open houses serve two purposes, both of which benefit the listing agent, one, they use them as lead generation opportunities (collecting names to sell “other” properties to them) and two, to support their position that their home is not sold. You’ve sold, despite all your hard work, and you should lower the selling price.