What are your thoughts on flat fee listing services?

a bunch of losers who cant hack it..

here is what i tell sellers about them..

mr seller to you want some cost cutting service
to cut you out of your equity..

do you want some failing agents to fail to sell your home..


do you want some spineless agents..or service to gamble with your equity?

can you share with us what facts/data you present to them to back up your statements?

why are they losers??? Competition among different price levels is good and productive to our wonderful "free market" system.

You do not want just Vanilla?

I like them. I am an agent investor and occasionally flipping properties in a neighboring state where I am not licensed. Flat fee listing saves me a lot of money.

Fee for service can be a viable model in real estate. Many professionals from accountants to attorneys and mechanics use it.
Depending on your states minimum service laws, if there are any, I have heard of very successful agents in parts of the country, primarily the east coast, who make an excellent living from it.

Fee for service can be a viable model in real estate. Many professionals from accountants to attorneys and mechanics use it.
Depending on your states minimum service laws, if there are any, I have heard of very successful agents in parts of the country, primarily the east coast, who make an excellent living from it.

It's easy to crush a flat fee lister.

Mr. Seller unlike a flat fee company I don't get paid until it closes.The flat fee person charges the money upfront.They are just like FSBO companies.If the service is so great Mr. Seller and is guarantee to work why don't they get paid only when they perform??

Sounds like they will just take your money and when you have an issue or problem just hand you off to someone else.

What you pay for in commission is the broker/agents network and keeping the contract together until closing.That is where the money is earned.Anyone can charge a flat fee and stick it on the MLS and that doesn't do much.

The flat fee company also won't fight you on your list price and will tell you what you want to hear because they are getting the money upfront.If it sits on the market forever it can cost you money not having it priced correctly.Upfront money and sign exposure for them to get more flat fee listings and loss in asking price and time and aggravation to you because nobody told it to you straight on what it would take to sell.

I don't even do residential anymore and I haven't for years but it is easy to rip apart the flat fee model without even going into statistics.

It's simple in that whoever makes the best points and presents the best will win over the mind of the seller and get the business.

Broker on here has been saying the industry is changing with flat fee for over 6 years and all that has happened is all these flat fee companies have went by the wayside.

The sky never fell and I am still taking 7 to 10% listings in commission.

Ahh - this is why I deal only with buyers. Agents aren't as nasty to each other on the buying side.

"I will crush you..
you will go broke
I will ridicule you..to death.."

You are such a class act!

Spend $1800 to $2000 per listing? Really? What the heck are you doing? Almost all marketing is now on the internet and doesn't take that long to get it all posted.

I know when I started in this business 10 years ago, I asked "how do you get listings sold?". I was told over and over again - pricing. Price it right it will sell. Oh and also make sure it's cleaned up good. If you have a good flat fee agent that will provide the pricing information AND the sellers take that advice, that listing will sell as fast as someone charging 4 times as much. It's not rocket science to sell a house.

Oh and as for bashing the flat fee agent at your presentation? Well several agents here got to pay big fat settlements for doing just that. Not only is it a violation of the Code of Ethics but without any real proof to the claims it's also slander and libel.

Ahh - this is why I deal only with buyers. Agents aren't as nasty to each other on the buying side. LOL

lindenmoe - really?

there's an agent in my market area shes been around for at least she has been doing flat fee as long as i can remember. she brings in roughly 1000 listings a year her average days on market is 90 (which is decent for our area)

So when is she going out of business?

she collects as many buyers as listings she has roughly 10 buyers agents and about 5 listing agents

KWAtlanta - yes you are talking about Rhonda Duffy. She rocks! She has really built quite a business and early on positioned herself as a consumer advocate and it worked well. I think it was Baylor University that has done a couple of studies on listing agents and found the average time spent on a listing is 7-10 hours from taking the listing to closing. So using those numbers, the average agent still makes about $150 per hour at $495 up front and 1/2% at closing. Not a bad pay day.

The biggest difference is that the flat fee agent feels they should be paid for their work whether or not the house sells. They feel their work is worth money and their payday is not subject to the whims of the seller - not reducing price, taking off market to remodel instead, anything that won't result in a closing.

The other thought from full service flat fee agents is that the contingent pay model is unfair to those sellers that do sell. Why should they pay you a higher fee just because you spent money and time on your listing down the street that those sellers then decided not to sell and you were paid a big fat zero. Isn't it a better system that everyone pays their own way and you don't have one client (the listing that does sell) paying for the other client who took their home off the market and you made a big fat zero?

Where I think you are getting confused is with companies that do MLS entry only. That is basically an advertising company. What I'm talking about is a system like Duffy Realty - where it is full service, it is very much a system and customers are really taken care of very well.

I feel that an agent's time is valuable whether or not the home sells. We all know of sellers that absolutely refuse to lower the price even though they had agreed at the time of the listing. We also know about sellers who just take their homes off the market deciding to stay and remodel instead. Of course they will do this - THEY HAVE NO SKIN IN THE GAME. I'm not doing listings but if I did - I would rock this system all day long.


Now is the time that everyone jumps in and says oh I spend a million kagillion hours on every transaction blah blah blah. And oh yeah - I will crush you blah blah blah. LOL sorry coudn't resist.

mr seller why would you want some weak agent..too weak to fight for thier own pockets, ..you really think they would fight for your equity?

mr seller how does it feel knowing that agent lacks the backbone to negotiate the best price for thier services..how will they negotiate..the sale on your home?

Tell the sellers EXACTLY what you are going to do to get their home sold that is worth an additional $6000 dollars or whatever it is. This is far more tasteful, professional and logical.

So if they let you rip them off, then you will have the opportunity to rip off their buyer. If I were the seller that's exacty what I would think about that statement. I think they may be more interested in an agent who isn't just out for themselves, but out to do the best job for them.

Now I'm going to fill you in on the secret for taking business from the lower cost agent. Tell the sellers EXACTLY what you are going to do to get their home sold that is worth an additional $6000 dollars or whatever it is. This is far more tasteful, professional and logical. You don't need to bash the other agent or make statements that are most likely untrue and sound stupid. Just list the additional whatever you do that costs you more in outlay of dollars and/or time. This is how you get the business from a discounter. Justify and prove. Show addresses of homes sold by, I don't know, sending postcards to the neighborhood. Or paid advertising and these addresses all sold because of it. Things that are verifiable.

People think of us as used car salesman and they certainly wouldn't buy the higher priced car simply because that salesman said "well it's cheaper down the street because that guy has no backbone". Still haven't given me a reason to pay more. GIVE THEM THE REASON TO PAY MORE AND THEY WILL. SHOW PROOF AND YOUR GOLDEN. Just talk and you have an uphill battle my friend.

". . . How does the buyer's agent get paid? Is there any incentive for buyer's agents to bring their buyers to these properties?

Most serious buyers work through buyer's agents

it doesn't sound like there is much incentive for them to research and promote a flat fee listing

It sounds like a hassle

and as you say not much more than a FSBO.

Around here all flat fee listings offer the normal buyer's agent commission via the MLS. We don't have any such companies offering 0% or something really small. Sellers here seem to be happy to pay the buyer's agent, they just don't feel the listing agent is worth the money.

I have sold many FSBOs and they don't have a problem with paying me either. Before I show the property I always send over the FSBO Commission Agreement. Once it's returned signed, then I show the property. This way my buyer is always protected.