Flat Fee MLS In Florida…Today’s Marketing Strategy
Today, Flat fee MLS Florida for sale by owner real estate listing service offers a new advantage over what made it so popular several years ago. The market has changed and the way savvy home sellers market their property will have to change with it.
Flat Fee MLS (Multiple Listing Service) in Florida became very popular during the good times starting in the year 2000. There were far more buyers than sellers so all you needed to do was get your property on the MLS and it would sell within days. Flat fee MLS in Florida was so popular because it saved a big chunk of the commission by cutting out a listing commission of about 3% of the sale price and paying an upfront flat fee of about $250 instead. Why pay a listing agent thousands of dollars for a few minutes of work. Of course those day are gone, at least for now, and the market is moving very slowly. If you don’t have to sell right now…DON’T. If you are in a situation that forces a move than you should read the next paragraph!
Flat Fee MLS in Florida is still a great marketing tool if used in a way that compliments the market. What made by-owner flat fee MLS so popular in the past was the inexpensive vehicle it povided for MLS coverage. Now, the MLS is just not enough because of the growing inventory. There are buyers out there but many of them are investors looking for a big discount on the price. However, there are buyers coming from other countries and other parts of the United States who are just looking for a home. Not everyone who is in the market to buy a Florida home necessarily wants to steal your real estate. So how do you find these buyers?
Flat Fee MLS Florida to the rescue again! The way to utilize this great for-sale-by-owner marketing tool in today’s market is by getting the thousands of local Realtors to focus on your property more heavily than the other competiting properties in your area. There are thousands of Realtors covering the larger metropolitan areas in Florida and hundreds in the the smaller markets like Brevard County, Gainesville, Palm Coast, Tallahassee and so many others.
The old myth about flat fee MLS was that agents wouldn’t show your property if you did not list with a traditional listing agent and pay the average 3% listing commission. That proved to be untrue because about half of all agents earn their living from selling and not listing real estate so why would they care how you are getting listed on the MLS. Now, here is the formula that gives you the best shot at finding those out of state, out of country buyers!!!
Realtors are compensated on a commission basis and the first thing they look at on the MLS printout is how much you are offering if they deliver a buyer! They do want to know this before they inform their buyers of the available properties! If the commission is below the average 3% the property will probably not be shown by many agents. However, if you are offering a commission above 3% the property most likely will move to the top of the buyer agents list in a hurry! It’s human nature for salespeople to desire the most commission possible on a real estate deal, especially when they have the buyer and that’s a huge commodity in the market today! So how much commission do you think you’ll need to offer to turn the local Realtors into your personal workforce?
If you list traditionally you are going to be paying 6%. Let’s break it down, 3% to list and another 3% to sell! If you do list traditionally, hire the very best listing agent and get a guarantee that they are going to do massive advertising because there won’t be any other advantage for you! The local buyers agents will see your offering as the exact same as other local properties. You will be offering the same selling commission as everyone else.
If you really want to stand out and reach out to the buyers agents offer 5% or 6% to the agent who procures a buyers. Now that’s a huge marketing advantage for you because by offering two or three percent more than any other competing property on the market you have just put all the Realtors on notice that you will pay them very well if they perform and deliver! The local agents will move you to the top of their buyers shopping list for future showings and work much harder to promote your property.
With flat fee MLS Florida you retain the right to sell your real estate yourself so start doing a little marketing on your own as well. There are international buyers out there but they can’t find you if you don’t offer worldwide marketing. In future post we will explore marketing strategies that compliment the efforts of by-owner flat fee MLS.
