Talent Agency 411

Million of people call an agent each year and list their homes
without knowing very much about how agents actually gets that
qualified buyer. In fact most people don’t realize that listing
agents only sell about 5% of all listed homes! Selling agents
take care of the rest. There is a difference between “listing”
agent and “selling agent” One lists, the other sells.

Most home sales actually take place through a huge database of
homes called the Multiple Listing Service, or MLS. Your listing
agent, by virtue of his or her membership, places your home into
the MLS for maximum exposure and probably 9 out of 10, your
homes gets sold by an agent other than the one you listed with.
Some people then question: why have a listing agent anyway and
pay the extra commission?

The simple answer is: a listing agent can be of great value,
especially when dealing with difficult transactions. They also
pay for a lot of the advertising and promotion that helps sell a
home. Yet, the MLS is the most effective marketing tool of all.

Some people are now electing to use flat fee MLS services to
list their homes prior to going “full listing” with anyone.
Reason: 50% savings in real estate commissions! That means that
if you have a home priced at $200,000 x 6% (customary
commission), you’d pay $12,000 plus closing costs when it’s all
said and done at the title company. With flat fee services,
where you gain access to the highly effective MLS system and
even Realtor.com, you get to pay only 2.5-3.0% commission to the
agent who “actually” produces a buyer. This means you need to
open your own door yourself and show the home without a listing
agent. If you can handle that, you could be on your way to huge
savings. That $200,000 home, when sold, would now only require
3% commission so your savings are substantial: $6,000!

Flat fees are usually between $299-$599 and every bit worth it.
You get your home exposed to thousands of agents, some 900,000
total if you count Realtor.com, plus your local MLS. A
state-licensed broker does the listing so everything is legal.
Some brokers will even help you with difficult transactions for
a scaleable fee, say, and an extra 1%. Others will even give you
cash back when you purchase your new home! Real estate
commissions have become more flexible and the Internet has
allowed the small guy to get the word out that you don’t have to
pay 6% to sell your home. You can sell it by owner while
perusing the MLS at the same time. Sell by owner, pay no
commission, sell via the MLS, and pay 3% plus the upfront flat
fees mentioned above.

One site in particular gives you a 100% free report that you can
download and learn all about flat fee methods of selling your
home plus a lot more. You can download the report at
http://flatfeerport.com without any obligation.

The whole idea behind flat fee real estate commissions is
centered around the all powerful and members-only MLS system.
Here’s a little history:

The term “multiple listing” dates back to the end of the 19th
century! The first Boards of REALTORS® were established as “Real
Estate Exchanges.” The Members of a Board of REALTORS® gathered
at the Board offices and “exchanged” information about their
listings similar to today’s office sales meetings. During the
1880s and 1890s, sales of broker-listed properties were
conducted on behalf of principals. Records of this type of sales
meetings date back as early as 1907.

The practice of “multiple listing” expanded from the 1920s to
this date in the form of Boards of Realtors or Regional Multiple
Listing Services for members only. Multiple Listing Service
systems throughout the United States share their listings with
Realtor.com, the official web site for the National Association
Of Realtors Realtor.com receives millions of hits each month.
This type of traffic implies huge exposure of properties for
sale to online homebuyers.

It’s not uncommon for individual MLS systems to boast over
$400,000,000 in volume per year or approximately 4,000-5,000
contracts.

The MLS system, which is secure, private and accessible by over
900,000 agents, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day, via the Internet,
wireless or by email. Another example, in Michigan, Realcomp II
Ltd. MLS boasts more than 11,700 Realtors carrying approximately
38,000 properties listed for sale at any given time! Utah’s
Wasatch Front Regional MLS carries an average of 14,000+
properties, collectively.

The Multiple Listing Service is a powerful and sophisticated
database of listed properties. The North Carolina Association Of
Realtors boasted 91977 Units sold in 2003 and over
$17,018,876,287 in volume the same year! Your listing
description on the MLS is very much pre-formatted for database
input and is primarily detailed for Realtors to see. Abridged
versions of your listing information are available to the public
when your property is listed on Realtor.com and a collection of
other satellite sites that mirror MLS listings from around the
country. Other sites that feature MLS listed properties include:

• Cyber Homes • HomeAdvisor • Homes • HomeSeekers • Realtor.com
• Yahoo

Savings are just a click away when it comes to selling your
home!