October 2, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

Last week I had a call from a gentleman here in Bellevue who was very excited about our $500 Flat Fee Listing program. We still haven’t officially announced or launched it, but he had read about it in a post on one of my blogs and gave me a call.

Apparently he has been trying to sell a family house as a FSBO (for sale by owner) for the past two or three months with no success. First of all, he should not feel all alone - there are many homes in our area that have been languishing on the market for months - and they are listed on the MLS and represented by agents!

I explained to him that it is very important for his property to be exposed to as many potential buyers as possible and that in my opinion, the best way to do this is by getting the house listed on the local multiple listing service (MLS). He agreed that’s what he needed to do and went to AAAListsHomes.com to get the forms to fill out to get listed.

A short time later, he called back to ask about the selling broker commission. With a Flat Fee Listing, no listing commissions are charged or paid, but the seller does need to offer selling brokers (or buyer’s agents) a commission for their work. Our FSBO didn’t want to pay the buyer’s agent at all - in his opinion that should be up to the buyer!

I explained that real estate commissions, while always being negotiable, are traditionally paid as a percentage of the sales price of a property - and from the sales price. That means the seller generally pays the sales side of the commission, even if that agent is working for the buyer. Another thing that I mentioned to him is that buyers are having a hard enough time finding financing, without having to come up with another big pile of cash to pay commissions.

AAA Properties is happy to be part of changing the real estate industry by eliminating listing commissions, but the fact is there are still thousands of agents out there who represent most of the buyers. We want those buyers agents to show our listings to our buyers, so we recommend that those who use our flat fee service offer a full 3% to any agent who brings them a buyer. This is truly the only way to make sure that your property gets full exposure to the market and will bring the best price possible.

In the end, it is unknown if our FSBO will be listing his house or not, whether he’ll choose to offer a selling broker commission, how long it will take him to sell the property or whether he will get a good price for his house. What would you do? What do think will happen in his situation?

Skidoodleski, Hair Farmer Joe

Posted in MLS, Residential, FSBO, Commissions, Listing, Bellevue | No Comments »

October 2, 2007 by Joe Kennedy.

Ardell says she won’t be going, but wrote a recent post about Than Merrill coming to Bellevue on October 11th to speak at a special Real Estate Investors Association event. I am a new member of REIA and will be at this event (along with the regular meeting on Oct 8). Both events are completely free to members. I fully recommend that anyone with any interest in real estate investing join this group.

As a side note, Than recorded a Real Estate Today Podcast with Tom Kelly on Sunday which is definitely worth listening to.

Posted in Flippers, Investors | No Comments »