Flat Fee MLS Blog

                                                                                                         If you want to decrease your cooling expense, install some awnings. Awnings are great for summer and for winter. By blocking incoming solar rays, they decrease cooling loads, which are among the biggest expenses for buildings. In summer, awnings can intercept the near vertical solar rays, while letting in the low-angle rays of winter.

Awnings make rooms more comfortable and save money on high air conditioning bills. They can add value to your home because they ”dress-up” your home and smooth out the structural lines. If you are marketing your home to potential buyers, you can show them how awnings result in lower bills, and this is a memorable talking point.

Install some awnings over your windows and your home will be more energy efficient with less air conditioning use. You will save money while also adding value and curb appeal to your home.

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                                                                                                           If you are selling your home FSBO or listing on the MLS, you are likely to have some close encounters with first-time homebuyers while marketing your home. There are a number of terms that are unfamiliar to first-time homebuyers and the more informed and knowledgeable you are as a seller, the more helpful you are to your buyer.

Here are some terms that both buyers and sellers should be familiar with:

Closing costs: The expenses that buyers and sellers normally incur in a real estate transaction. Closing costs are in addition to the price of the house and usually add up to between 5% and 6% of the mortgage amount.

Conventional Loan: A mortgage that is not insured by the Federal Housing Administration or guaranteed by Veteran Affairs.

Origination Fee: The fee charged by a lender to prepare all documents associated with your mortgage.

Escrow: A special third-party account that is set up by the lender until all conditions of the purchase contract have been met.

Title Search: An examiniation of public records to ensure that you are purchasing the property from its legal owner and that there are no liens, overdue assessments or other claims that would affect the value or marketability of the property.

Deed: A legal document by which the ownership of property is transferred from one owner to another.

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                                Ceiling fans do a nice job of circulating air in the rooms that you occupy most, and they use only about 1/30th the electricity of a room air conditioner.  But if you can’t live without air conditioning, there are some greener options out there.

A single window unit that  keeps one room cool is far less energy intensive and polluting than central air conditioning that keeps all the rooms in the  house (including those you’re not using) cool. Look for new models that display the federal Energy Star label,  which marks units as energy efficient.

By investing in an Energy-Star certified air conditioner, you will see substantial savings in your energy bills, as well as enjoying high quality. Maximizing energy efficiency is a great way to relieve stress on the over-taxed power grid. Room air conditioners must be a t least 10% more efficient than typical models to achieve Energy Star, and central air must be at least 14%.

When the heat is sweltering , cooling costs really add up across the country. Home buyers and sellers, FSBO, and those listed on the MLS are all interested in saving money and decreasing our carbon footprint while staying cool.

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              Collecting rainwater for use during dry months in rain barrels or other depositories is an ancient and traditonal practice. Historical records show that rainwater was collected in simple clay containers as far back as 2,000 years ago in Thailand and throughout other areas of the world after that.  With the rising price of municipal water and drought restrictions now facing much of the United States during the summer months, more and more homeowners in our own modern society are turning to the harvesting of rainwater to save money and protect this precious natural resource.                                                                                

        If you aren’t ready to install a green roof yet, you can accomplish much the same thing by directing water from your roof into a rain barrel.

The main goal is to reduce the amount of storm water that runs off your property and into an overburdened sewer system. If you save that runoff and use it to water your plants, lawn or garden, you will be both conserving a valuable resource and saving money on your utility bill.

Most German houses have a rain gutter that leads to a collection water drum, which is used to hold rain runoff to water plants. Use of such devices is kinder to our ecosystem. This is a simple energy and water conservation technology that is easy to import.

If you are selling your home FSBO or listing on the MLS, this is a great tip to pass along to your home buyers.

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                           If you don’t think that hot water is a hot  topic, think again. The average electric water heater serving a family of four uses 6,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year, releasing eight tons of CO2, according to the University of Wisconsin’s Solar Energy Laboratory. That’s more than a typical automobile! Gas-fired heaters release about two tons of CO2 a year.

Investing in a solar water heater is a simple and affordable way to save money on your utilities while helping to protect the environment. Solar water heaters are very reliable and can work in any climate. There are several different types, including those with pumps and those that work passively. You will need a storage tank and some type of solar collector. Some homeowners use the devices exclusively or sometimes with a gas or electric tankless water heater as a backup, while others pair them with other systems as pre-heaters.

You don’t have to go off the grid and the good news is that home solar water heating systems cost an affordable $1,500 to $3,500 and pay for themselves in four to eight years. If you are selling your home  ” fsbo ” or advertising on the MLS, why not schedule one into your next renovation?

Shop for a solar water heater online at: solarhome.org and solarroofs.com

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         Whether you are selling your home yourself “fsbo“ or you are advertising your home on the MLS, sometimes you need to attract a different breed of buyer. For a home that might sit on the market for a while, you might want to take the time to highlight the pet-friendly aspects of your house.  Marketing to pet owners can make your house sell more quickly. It’s a real selling tool if you can show your home is good for pets.

Here are some inexpensive tips you can use to appeal to pet lovers:

1. Hang a couple of leashes on a coat rack by the back door.

2. In the kitchen, place a large jar of doggy treats on the countertop.

3. In the master bedroom or family room, set out a stylish dog bed, don’t forget the dog or cat magazine on the nearly table.

4. Let the agents know that pet owners are welcome to bring their dogs along to the property to scope it out. Don’t forget to set out a water bowl for the visitors.

5. Pet owners will get a kick out of viewing your personal photos of your pets, so post a few on the fridge for them.

The best pricier option is to install an electric, invisible fence around your property and the newest thing is to put a pet bath in the laundry room or garage. A sure fire attention-getter is a custom-built doghouse that is a replica of the main house.

Don’t forget the clean-up area, the lawn should be immaculate when you show the house. If you can’t clean-up the area yourself, hire a pooper-scooper company to do it for you.

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An article written by Mark S. Nadel, a government attorney, concludes that “residential real estate brokers and salespersons have long quoted their fees as a straight percentage of a home’s sales price. This traditional forumla, however, ill serves the interests of both home buyers and sellers, and is the primary reason why such fees may be inflated by, on average, more than 100 percent or $30 BILLION a year.”

There is intense competition in the real estate industry, but not in terms of price or fees. In his article, Nadel compares the real estate industry’s “flat fee” “take it or leave it” practices to those of the funeral industry, as exposed in the 1963 book “The American Way of Death,” which found that families were regularly ask to pay a single price for a bundle of funeral services, many of which they did not need or want.
Nadel charges that consumers would be substantially better off if residential brokers used fee structures similar to those used by professionals in other advisory/consulting service fields, such as law and accounting.

Nadel’s Cry…Consumers Take Action:

Traditional brokers revenue could be cut by $30 billion dollars per year with price competition. To level the field and insist upon true price competition, consumers should be armed with the following 5 pieces of information.

1. Buyers should receive an estimate of the dollar amount of the fee that their broker expects to receive in a home-sale transaction.

2. Buyers should be told whether their broker’s agent may refuse to inform them about homes that meet their criteria, if those homes are not listed by traditional brokers.

3. Buyers should be advised that fees paid to a buyer’s broker can be treated as part of the sales price for mortgage purposes.

4. Sellers should be informed that many buyers have no broker, that others have brokers who have agreed to receive less than the customary 3 percent buyer broker co-op fee, and that both groups of buyers expect to be able to translate that savings into a price reduction.

5. Sellers should be told whether their listing broker will attempt to limit the distribution of their listing by competing brokers.

In conclusion, the traditional 6 percent rate structure in the real estate industry has serious drawbacks and the structure is not defensible. 6 percent fee’s provide an incentive for a broker to sell quickly because their fee is based on the sales price, rather than on the time, effort and marketing dollars required to sell the home. Buyers and Sellers owe it to themselves to learn all the information before they hire a real estate broker.