Topics:

What is the MLS?

What are the Benefits of advertising on the MLS

What is all the “Hype” of the MLS

What Should You Consider? 

What is the MLS? 

The Multiple Listing Service is a database of homes and property that are for sale.  The MLS is operated by the local Board of Realtors®.  The MLS is the resource agents use to find homes for their buyers or advertise their home listings to other agents.  MLS listings include detailed information about the property.  In addition to selling price and address, an MLS listing generally includes number of rooms, size of rooms, interior and exterior features, lot size, local school district, property taxes, association dues, directions to the property and comments.  Most also include photo’s of the home and a lockbox.  At the sellers discretion, most MLS listings can also be upgraded for a fee to include additional photos or virtual video tours.

 To MLS or Not To MLS;  Separating Fact from Hype 

The Multiple Listing Service (MLS) is a powerful tool for real estate agents and home sellers.  It allows seller’s and agent’s to cross-sell all properties in a given market, which greatly expands the sales force of all the properties for sale.  The Internet has expanded the power of the MLS by providing information in real time to not only agents, but to home buyers and home sellers alike through its www.Realtor.com website.  The MLS and Realtor,com it is looked at by thousands of real estate agents who may have a buyer for your property and individual home buyers searching the Internet.  

Note:  In addition to Realtor.com, properties listed on the MLS  also appear on other major real estate search engines like Zillow, Homes.com, Military.com, Trulia.com, Yahoo, Google and a host of others. 

Benefits of MLS Advertising: 

There is only one very significant benefit to having your home listed on the MLS…EXPOSURE!   The fact that your home is for sale will now be known by anyone searching the Internet.  Additionally, hundreds, if not thousands of real estate agents in your market will also know about your property.  To fully benefit from this exposure, you need to be willing to “co-op” with a real estate agent, if they bring a buyer whose contract terms are acceptable to you.  “Co-op” means that you agree to compensate the buyer’s real estate agent at the closing of your property.  Typically, a buyer’s agent will earn between 2%-3% of the sales price of the home.  If you are willing to “co-op” with a buyer’s agent, you should indicate this clearly in your Internet and classified advertising, and on your brochures. 

To list your home on the MLS, you will need to contract with a real estate listing agent that is a member of your local real estate board.  If your interest is purely to have your home listed on the MLS; you can contract with a new type of  Broker who charges a one-time fee to cover the cost of them listing your home in the MLS and allows you to act as your own listing agent. 

The flat-fee MLS listing concept is fairly new and not all agents will be anxious to provide this service, as they are in the full service real estate listing business.  To learn more about using a flat-fee MLS service, visit websites like http://www.why6percent.com     

In many areas of the United States, when a home appears on the local MLS, it will also appear on aggregator websites like MSN Home Advisor, Yahoo Real  Estate, Realtor.com, Zillow.com and local state and broker websites.  Many of the MLS  Boards send their inventory directly to these websites to enable even more exposure for the homeowner. 

In today’s transient society, thousands of people use the internet to search for homes far in advance of their relocation.  Many  people supply the list of properties that interest them to their agent, so the agent can set up showing appointments.  When a buyer is relocating to a new area, time is limited and critical.  This means the buyer’s agent becomes a critical part of relocation effort.  Therefore, the MLS can be key to exposing your home to people relocating to your area. 

What is the Hype of an MLS listing? 

1)      Your house will never sell if it is NOT listed on the MLS…False.

Your house may sell more quickly or for more money because of the tremendous exposure we discussed above, but your home can sell with or without the MLS.   

2)      Buyers will never find your home if it is NOT listed on the MLS…False.

According to the National Assn. of Realtors data, 60% of all home sales occur because of the sign in the yard.   Newsletters, directional signs, open houses, classified advertising and InfoTubes or InfoBoxes, filled with attractive home information flyers, will also help you find a buyer for your home. 

3)      Real estate agents will not bring a buyer to you if you are NOT on theMLS… False.

If an agent has an interested buyer and you indicate you are willing to pay them a commission, they have no reason to boycott your property.   If they do, they risk that the buyer contacts you directly and they don’t make a dime. 

Considerations: 

The MLS has proven value and is certainly a wonderful way to expand your advertising reach.  If your goal is to make local agents aware that your home is for sale and reach the millions of buyers searching for homes on major real estate websites.  Keep in mind that you will need to pay a commission to a buyer agent at closing, if they bring you an offer that you accept.

If you decide to place your home on the MLS, consider it as a part of your overall marketing strategy and not a replacement for your advertising program.  Properly understood, the MLS can be another excellent part of your home selling process.

Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com.   Our national network of flat fee MLS brokers are standing by to assist you in marketing your home.  Please visit our website or phone 1-800-381-9496 to get started!

When the real estate bubble burst in 2007, I predicted that we would likely see large, single family, suburban mansions carved up and repurposed into multi-family housing.   Well, time and a prolonged recession have proven the idea viable.

The USA went through the same type of evolution, in reverse, with intercity housing.   Vacant, large urban, single family mansions where carved up into apartments, efficiencies and co-ops, after the mass exodus to the suburbs in the 1950’s.      Now, its the McMansions, gated communities and long commutes that are out of vogue. 

Families are returning back to life in the inner city.  They are buying multi-family homes and converting them back into single family residences.  The concept of highest and best use…has come full circle.

Check out this short video to see the latest change in student housing in decades.  A bad housing market has created some luxury digs for college co-eds out in the ‘burbs”. 

College students renting suburban McMansions

Thank you for visiting Why 6 Percent.  We offer flat fee MLS and Realtor.com packages to builders, homeowners and anyone who needs to keep more money from their property sell.  We have helped thousands of homeowners sell their homes.  We can help you, too.

   The idea of Bulldozing houses is nothing new.  Although the banks are not blowing up homes for alturistic reasons…I think we can all agree that removing home inventory is good for all of us.  In 2010, Warren Buffet advised that ”blow up a lot of houses” was a viable option and similar to ‘cash for clunkers’ auto program.  I always thought bulldozing abandoned homes and returning the land to a raw state was a smarter solution than handing out money in the form of a homebuyer tax credit.   The tax credit cost billions of dollars, put money into the hands of a few people blessed with good timing and did little to reduce inventory.  

Bankers, why not take the “TNT” strategy one step further.   Donate unwanted houses to local non-profits vs blowing them up?  Make a call to Habitat for Humanity, for example?   I can’t understand why Habitat is still building new homes, when we can’t get rid of the ones that are causing problems in our neighborhoods.   Habitat needs to change their business model with the times and so do our lenders.  Families, who are in dire need now, wait up to 6+ months for a new home to be built and the cost of building from scratch far exceeds the costs of rehabbing properties, in most cases.    

Just my two cents….

Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com.  We offer a low, flat fee MLS program for owners, builders and for people who need to hold onto as much of their money as possible.  If you aren’t familiar with advertising your home  on the MLS or Realtor.com, please visit our website and review the FAQ.   Our marketing packages reach millions of home buyers each day.

 InfoTube.net is FREE home selling website.  Visit our site for free legal forms, home searches, home listings, marketing tools, advise and support!   We are a 100% Made in the USA company.

Housing Market 2012

Remember that in spite of the doom and gloom…10,000 sets of keys are handed to new homeowners every single day!!  

Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com…we offer FREE marketing website for owners, builders and agents.    In addition, our MLS and Realtor.com packages can give you all the exposure of a full service listing…without the cost.

Remember that… Who you buy From is as important as What you Buy!   Look for Made in the USA products and support US workers!!

For those of you who are following our struggle and have ask how you can help next…  

I think that continuing to send requests to ABC news (the direct link is below) would really be helpful for moving our negotiations forward and for highlighting this David and Goliath story.   

My recent experiences have proven that the tide of consumer awareness is shifting in our country.  The grass roots support for American business, workers and products is gaining momentum quickly and we all need to stay involved to turn our economy and future around.

I would encourage everyone to submit your favorite American made products to ABC News. 

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/MadeInAmerica/mailform?id=13599846

I hope to see a lot of love for InfoTube and InfoBox, of course, but I know that a lot of American businesses are fighting against the outsourcing tsunami, as well.   Each one of them would appreciate your support and there is no limit on the number of products you can submit.

Thank you again for all your help!!!!  Without you, we wouldn’t be here today.   Please mention us to ABC News…I would love to tell our story to Diane Sawyer

Tommi Crow

President, Crow Erickson, Inc

We feel the sole reason for this communication is due to the pouring of support and the hundreds of emails and inquiries sent on our behalf.  

Although, a decision has not been made about the outsourcing of our products to China, we do feel that we have some positive news to share with you for the first time.

On behalf of everyone at Crow Erickson, Caplugs and our associates, we want to extend our deepest Thanks for all your continued effort and support.   We hope that a resolution can be reached, now that the lines of communication have been opened. 

We will be sure to keep you posted on the outcome of our ongoing negotiations.  Made in America matters to us all.

Tommi Crow

President, Crow Erickson, Inc.

7 Home Selling Tips from the Lips of Top Selling Agents

• For starters, take down the Wallpaper – Trust me when I say, “Buyers just do not like wallpaper.”   If you doubt how personal wallpaper is…just walk into any wallpaper store and stare at the thousands of available patterns.  Chances of your tastes matching are at least a thousand to one.  Don’t risk it!  Pull that paper down!
• The Clutter HAS to Go!  Living in a house is alot different than Selling a house.  It is easy to get blind to your own clutter.  Ask a friend, neighbor or neutral party to be honest with you.  Then, pack away every single thing you don’t use.  And, clear the kitchen counters completely.
• Smelly Homes Will NOT Sell.  Agents have an old saying, “If I can smell it, I can’t sell it.”  Pet smells, musty odor’s, etc will kill a sale everytime.
• White is not a Color.  But, paint is your friend.  Every room should have a fresh coat of paint in a warm, neutral color.
• A Spot of Color.  Everyone loves flowers.  Place pots with colorful annual flowers by the front door or plant seasonal color in the beds to make your home inviting and memorable.
• Househunting Begins on the Internet.  If your property is not exposed on the internet, your chances of a buyer finding you are very small.  Tip the odds in your favor by advertising your home on the MLS and all the major search engines for real estate.  InfoTube also offers FREE property listings on its website.   Also, make sure your listing includes at least 10 good photo’s of the interior and exterior of your home.  If possible, also include a video tour of the house and neighborhood.
• Forget About Comp’s and Sold Properties.  Study your competition, which means homes currently For Sale.  If your home is priced too high when compared to your competition, it is going to sit for a long, long time.

Homeowners should please keep in mind that Buyers have a lot of choices.  The homeowner who can make their house stand out among the vast inventory of “For Sale” signs will the one who wins the selling game.

Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com,, your do-it-yourself home selling source.   We can bring buyer’s to your door.  Check out our website to see how we’ve helped thousands of home sellers.

The lack of first-time buyers is hurting the housing market and their absense is hampering the recovery.

In normal markets, first time buyers make up 40%-45% of all home purchasers.  Since January of 2011, purchases made by first time buyers averages only 32%

Why is this important for existing home sales? 

First time buyers are crucial to the market because they buy starter homes so those owners can step up to a more expensive property.   Despite low mortgage rates and deeply discounted prices, they are remaining on the sidelines…at least for now.

What may be keeping first time buyers out of the housing market?

Some experts point to a hangover from the  Expired Tax Credit of 2009 and 201o, which may have lured buyers into a home sooner than later.   Some point to tighter lending standards and increased down payment requirements.  The best loan terms now kick in with a down payment of 20% or more, which may be very difficult for a first time homeowner.

The Silver Lining — The National Association of Realtors reported that a record 33% of all existing home sales in Febuary were to Cash Buyers.  In some parts of the country, cash buyers accounted for more than half of all the existing homes sold.

Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com.  We have helped thousands of home sellers and builders market their homes and save money.  We can help you, too!  Visit our website for facts and details.

Home Sellers should check out  InfoTube.NET a FREE homes for sale and rent website.  Visit the site to  place a free ad on your property, view listings or to purchase a Made in America InfoTube or InfoBoxe to help you market your home on the street.

We can also arrange for your property to be shown on your local MLS and/or Realtor.com and all major real estate websites.  CLICK HERE for details.

Olmsted discovered this himself when he tracked the value of land around Central Park and found that the city’s $13 million investment had led to an astounding $209 million increase in just 17 years. The architect recognized what many planners still fail to grasp: Parks and managed green space are vital pieces of urban infrastructure that not only improve the quality of life for millions of people but also drive economic growth. 

Today we must act again to transform our cities. The commercial real estate binge of the past decade and the growth of online shopping as an alternative to brick-and-mortar stores have left more than 200,000 acres of vacant retail, office and industrial space. Residential real estate is a massive problem as well.  Distressed properties are a drag on our communities and the economy, and threaten to topple even more banks that hold mortgages on these “toxic assets.”   We need to move these toxic assets off the banks’ books, reduce the surplus of commercial space and create jobs, all while revitalizing our cities. This brings us back to Olmsted.  

Olmsted designed transformative parks, campuses and greenways; his firm completed an amazing 6,000 commissions and launched a green wave across 19th-century America. The same kind of wave could help resolve the 21st-century real estate mess.  We don’t have the luxury of vacant land that Olmsted often started with, so we must bulldoze underperforming and underused property, put people to work creating parks on some of the land and “bank” the rest until the economy recovers. 

Beginning with Atlanta, Georgia Tech is researching what is needed to accomplish this in 12 major cities. The project is known as Red Fields to Green Fields. Under this plan, some of the abandoned or underutilized property would be acquired by a parks agency or by public-private partnerships, which would then begin demolition, park design and construction, putting people to work immediately. More jobs would come as the improved areas attracted development.

 This would not be the first time that property has been bulldozed for economic gain. The railroads, which had many miles of underused track to maintain, pulled up 55 percent of their tracks in the past 60 years to increase profitability, enabling the creation of 19,000 linear miles of “rails-to-trails” parks. 

Pittsburgh, realizing that the steel industry was never coming back, tore down riverfront steel mills and replaced them with an attractive mix of parks and office space. In Michigan, Flint and Detroit are finding ways to “bank” land as open space.   The banking system and the federal government could play an important role in this effort. Rather than backstop bad real estate paper, the Federal Reserve, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) and the Treasury Department could help finance the acquisition of excess commercial real estate through a land bank fund. 

Instead of buying mortgage-backed securities, why couldn’t the Fed buy excess developed real estate to be held as green space through “land-backed securities”? Why couldn’t the FDIC give some of the useless properties it obtains through bank closures to land banks or nonprofit organizations?   With the right financing structure, philanthropic entrepreneurs could use leverage to remake America just as some of our bad developers used easy bank financing to help create the excesses.   

Acquisition money could also come from expanding tax incentives that encourage banks and landlords to donate land and encourage wealthy individuals and corporations to buy conservation tax credits. Georgia Tech’s analysis has also shown that the money needed for a nationwide program would be a tiny fraction of current real estate support programs, such as the Fed’s “quantitative easing” or its recent purchase of $1.5 trillion in mortgages. 

The 2009 stimulus package did much to protect jobs but little to stimulate the economy with transformational investments.  Converting underused commercial real estate to green space and “banked” land would be transformational. It would create jobs, strengthen the banking system to encourage lending and stabilize property values so that real estate owners would be ready to spend again. Most important, lush new parks would enhance neighborhoods across the country. 

Michael G. Messner is a Wall Street investment fund manager. He and his wife, Jenny, funded the documentary “The Olmsted Legacy,” which is airing on PBS, and are funding the Red Fields to Green Fields research at Georgia Tech.

Why6Percent.com thinks that Mr Olmstead and Mr. Messner may be on to something here.   We will follow this topic and update you with further developments.

But, if you’re still debating…consider the following:

• Winter, spring, summer or fall…if you’re priced above the rest of the market, your home will help sell the well priced listings, but not yours.
• There is less competition from competing homes during winter and less inventory benefits sellers’.
• Buyer’s who are househunting during winter are serious and truly motivated.
• Interest rates trend lower during winter months, when loan demand is low.
• Gardens and landscape don’t look as appealing in winter.   If your home won’t exactly win ”yard of the month” during summer…a snowy winter may actually level the playing field for you.
• Don’t believe that if you pull your home off the market during winter, you can bring it back in the spring as a new listing.   No one is fooled by this trick.  Your listing will still appear as canceled and relisted in the MLS.
• If it’s not on the market, the right buyer may come and go.

Thank you for stopping by Why6Percent.com.  We have helped thousands of home seller’s market their properties and save thousands of dollars in commissions and fee’s.  We can Help You, too.  Click HERE to review our marketing packages.