Archive for the ‘Flat Fee MLS’ Category
DOJ forces Columbia, SC MLS to Stops Unlaw Practices that Hurt Homeowners
The Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Columbia, SC Multiple Listing Service (MLS) have agreed to settle an antitrust lawsuit filed one year ago.
The DOJ filed the law suit on behalf of consumers, accusing the Columbia, SC area MLS of illegally stiffling competition to keep sales commissions and fee’s high.
Some of the charges against the Columbia MLS are:
- The Columbia MLS required all brokers to offer identical services to consumers (ie: full service listings). The intent was to eliminate flat fee MLS and ala carte brokers, whose business model allowed home seller’s to chose services they were willing to pay for.
- The Columbia MLS charged $5000 member initiation fee’s, far exceeding the costs charged by other MLS’s. By raising the initiation dues, the Columbia MLS hoped to make the dues prohibitively expensive for new brokers or for those with alternative business models that charge less for their services.
- The MLS board forced members to use one form for services. This form prohibited home sellers from doing some of the sales work themselves in an attempt to save money.
- The Columbia board required brokers to have a stand alone office, apart from their homes. The ban on home based business kept overhead costs high for brokers operating on a low cost sales model, making it difficult for them to compete with traditional 6 percent brokers.
DOJ Agreement Forces Major Rule Changes in SC:
- The Columbia, SC area MLS agreement “will remove unlawful impediments to competition for real estate brokerage services in the Columbia area and will lead to more choices and lower brokerage fees for South Carolina consumers,” said Christine Varney, assistant attorney general in charge of antitrust at the DOJ.
- The Columbia MLS has agreed to allow membership to any broker in charge, regardless of their business model (ie: flat fee MLS and ala carte services).
- The board must allow home owners the right to choose the services that they want, in order to save money in selling commissions and fee’s.
- The MLS must repeal rules that require a single contract form for service.
- The standalone office requirement has been removed. Broker members can work from home to keep their overhead low.
- The Columbia MLS will allow members from other area’s to use their service and access the MLS data.
Why 6 Percent applauds the DOJ on its win to protect South Carolina sellers and buyers alike. It is a Realtor’s fiduciary obligation to expose a home seller’s property to as many sources as possible, even if they want to do some of the work themselves. It is also the right of every broker to work with consumers in any legal way that they chose. The DOJ settlement should go a long way toward lessening the costs or buying and selling property in South Carolina.
Why 6 Percent has flat fee MLS and ala carte brokers ready to serve home sellers in South Carolina. Call us today at 1-800-381-9496 to learn how to expose your home to thousands of buyer agents and millions of home shoppers each month.
Latest News on Home Prices by Metro Area
The Case Shiller Home Price Index for Metro Area’s in the United States was just released.
The Full Report Can be Accessed by Clicking Here
Home Prices, by Metro Area
| Metro Area | February 2009 | Change from January | Year-over-year change |
| Atlanta | 106.65 | -2.50% | -15.30% |
| Boston | 148.77 | -1.30% | -7.20% |
| Charlotte | 118.94 | -1.60% | -9.40% |
| Chicago | 126.3 | -3.40% | -17.60% |
| Cleveland | 97.76 | -5.00% | -8.50% |
| Dallas | 112.39 | -0.30% | -4.50% |
| Denver | 120.22 | -1.70% | -5.70% |
| Detroit | 74.6 | -3.80% | -23.60% |
| Las Vegas | 121.06 | -3.60% | -31.70% |
| Los Angeles | 163.16 | -2.00% | -24.10% |
| Miami | 154.28 | -3.00% | -29.50% |
| Minneapolis | 116.39 | -3.10% | -20.30% |
| New York | 178.16 | -1.60% | -10.20% |
| Phoenix | 111.89 | -4.50% | -35.20% |
| Portland | 150.88 | -1.90% | -14.40% |
| San Diego | 146.82 | -1.00% | -22.90% |
| San Francisco | 120.39 | -3.30% | -31.00% |
| Seattle | 152.12 | -1.50% | -15.40% |
| Tampa | 145.25 | -2.70% | -23.00% |
| Washington | 168.02 | -2.30% | -19.20% |
Source: Standard & Poor’s and FiservData
Thank you for visiting Why 6 Percent. Unfortunately, we are looking, but we see no signs of a housing bottom in sight. If you need to sell your home and can’t pay 6 percent to an agent, we can place your property on the MLS, Realtor.com and all major real estate websites for only $399. We have helped thousands of owners, builders and investors sell their home and we can help you, too. Call 1-800-381-9496 for information and assistance.
Pro’s and Con’s of Sellling a Home by Realtor, Owner or Auction
Door #1, #2 or #3??? There are only 3 methods to sell a home. For Sale by Realtor or Agent. For Sale by Owner. Or, For Sale by Auction.
To Learn the Pro’s and Con’s about the 3 ways to sell real estate, this article is a must read. Click Here to Read this Article.
I learned a lot and really enjoyed myself, too. If you are considering buying or selling property, I am sure you will, too.
Thank you for visiting Why 6 Percent. We have the all tools the pro’s use to buy and sell property and we provide access to everyone who needs to sell a property. Call us at 1-800-381-9496 or visit our site for details about how we can help you!!
Tips for a Fast, Top Dollar Home Sale – #1 – Staging
For the next few weeks, I will be providing Essential Tips for Preparing Your Home for a Fast, Top Dollar Sale. Please check back with us each day, or click on our RSS feed below, to receive great idea’s to maximize this spring home selling season.
Sell Fast and For Top Dollar Tip #1
#1 – Stage Your Home Before You Take Pictures for the Internet.
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90 Percent of Home Buyers shop on the internet, so it is imperitive that your pictures look great to entice people into wanting to see the home in person.
Other Articles of Interest about Using Photographs Effectively are:
How to Take Great Pictures that Help Your Home Sell
Use “In Season” Photographs on Your Home Listing
Examples of good Home for Sale Pictures
Proof that Internet Photo’s Sell Houses
It’s Spring. Freshen Up your Photographs
Bad Examples of Home for Sale Pictures
Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com. We can place your home listing on the local MLS and dozens of major real estate websites such as Realtor.com for $399.
Call us today at 1-800-381-9496 to place your Home for Sale Listing in front of 12 million home shoppers each month.
More Buyer’s Use Internet to Find a Home
An interesting report released by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) revealed that one-third of all home buyers found the home they purchased on the internet, not through an agent.
To read more about using the power of the internet to buy and sell houses, check out this article on the InfoTube.net blog. The Realtor’s own data will surprise you.
Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com. We can list your property on your local MLS, Realtor.com, Google, Zillow, Craigslist, Trulia, MSN, Yahoo, InfoTube, HomesforSaleLive and other real estate web portals for only $399. Why pay 6 Percent???
4 Real Estate Mistakes Seller’s Should Avoid.
Timing is Everything, when attempting to catch a fish in your mouth or selling a home. Home Seller’s take note. Several factors have converged to make this the TIME to Sell!
Spring is here. Tax incentives, low interest rates and deep discounts on home prices have buyer’s jumping off the fence to buy a home. The question is “Are You Doing What it Takes to Sell a home in this Market?”.
Learn the 4 Mistakes That Prevent Home Sales
#4: Not Using Effective Marketing and Advertising. Simply put, people can not buy your home if they don’t know it is for sale. Forget print advertising. 95 percent of home buyer’s shop on the internet, so you have to maximize its power. Use a lot of photographs to showcase your home, buyers love photo’s more than anything else when they shop for a home. Video tours are also great sales tools that expose your property to a whole new audience.
#3: Trouble Making Appointments to Show: When a seller has trouble making his home accessible for showings, it is very likely that the buyer will move on to the next house and never look back. It is imperitive that your home is available to be shown in a moments notice. There are simply too many homes on the market for buyer’s to choose from. They are ready to buy now, they will not wait on you.
#2: Home is Not in “For Sale” Condition: As a rule, buyer’s form a first impression about a house in 60 seconds. If your home doesn’t appear neat, clean and cared for, buyers will walk. And, if you have an interested buyer, don’t forget that will insist on a home inspection. Fix problems and address delayed maintanence issues or risk stopping your sale in its tracks.
#1: Incorrectly Pricing Your Home: If your home is overpriced, you will drive away buyer’s. A high inventory of unsold homes means that buyer’s have plenty of choices. And, the internet allows buyer’s to see what people paid for houses similar to yours. Most buyers instantly know when a piece of real estate priced incorrectly. If yours is, buyer’s will simply refuse to look at it, at all.
To Learn More About How to Capitalize on the Busy Selling Season by reading these articles:
How to Find a Buyer for Your Home
The Most Effective Way to Advertise Your Home for Sale. Proof that Photo’s Sell Homes Use a Real Estate Video to Sell Your Home Tough Talk About Pricing Your Home What Home Repairs will a Buyer Expect You to Fix 10 Repairs that Seller’s MUST Make
Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com. We have helped thousands of home seller’s market their homes successfully and we can help you, too. Our real estate marketing program places your home in front of 10 million home shoppers each and every month.
FSBO’s – Stop Annoying Calls from Real Estate Agents
The housing crash is tough on everyone, but it is causing a huge problem for real estate agents. They are making no money and have no business. To make up part of their cash shortfall, they have turned their attention on for sale by owner’s , driving them crazy with cold calls.
Real estate media writers are part of this problem. Widely followed real estate commentators, such as Bernie Ross (good writer) of Inman News, are advising Realtors and agents to cold call for sale by owners in hopes of generating leads in a down market. Her recent article for Inman entitled “Cashing in on FSBO’s”, illustrates why, annoying or not, many agents are dialing your home searching for their next commission check.
Ms Ross advise to Agents :
“In today’s market, expired listings and distressed properties seem to dominate the scene. Nevertheless, there’s another source of right-now business that you can’t afford to miss: for-sale-by-owners (FSBOs).”
If you are selling by owner and find that daily sales calls from real estate agents are disruptive and infuriating, you can take action to make them stop.
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List your property on the MLS. Agents are automatically prohibited from calling seller’s whose property is listed on the MLS. In addition to eliminating sales calls, the MLS also provides fsbo’s the best exposure and reach needed to sell their home.
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Add your home and cell phone numbers to the “Do Not Call List“. If you are on the Do Not Call list, real estate agents and telephone marketer’s should not call you, and they can be fined if they do.
Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com. We specialize in FSBO’s real estate marketing and assist homeseller’s with an MLS and Realtor.com home listings. Call us today at 1-800-381-9496.
Some HomeSeller’s Pay More in Real Estate Fee’s than Others Do.
Real estate commissions fell by $12 Billion (with a B) in 2008. In 2007, residential real estate agent’s earned a whopping $58.4 Billion versus $46.6 Billion in 2008. 2005 was the all time high for real estate commissions paid to agents. In 2005, home seller’s forked over $71 Billion to residential real estate agents.
The highest commissions paid to sell a home in the US were in the west, where the average sales price is the highest. Agents in the western part of the US earned an average of $16,230 for each home sale. The average commissions paid in 2008 in other parts of the country were: Northeast, $15,500; South, $11,050; Midwest, $9540.
The data on agent commissions came from the National Association of Realtors and Real Trends. The question is why should seller’s pay more to sell an expensive home than one that is priced for less??? The job to sell any house is exactly the same, regardless of the list price… Why 6 Percent?????
Thank you for visiting Why 6 Percent. We have been assisting home seller’s, who do not want help from an agent, since 2003. We can help you, too.
All homeowner’s are invited to place a Free Home for Sale or Lease listing on InfoTube.net. Good luck on the sale of your home.
Internet and MLS Pay Off for Homesellers
If you are one of the thousands of people trying to sell a home, you need to know what kind of marketing and advertising pays off and what does not. To better concentrate your advertising and marketing efforts, learn which strategies work and which aren’t worth the effort.
Proven Methods to Market Your Home.
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The Local MLS: The #1 place to advertise your home listing for the maximum exposure is the MLS. Every real estate agent uses the MLS exclusively to locate property for prospective buyers. And, over 60 percent of individual home buyers found the home they purchased through public access MLS websites.
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The Internet: If you are putting money into newspaper advertising or home buyer guides, you would be much better off spending the money for online advertising. Only 3 percent of all buyers found their home through traditional print advertising. 90 percent of buyers located their home on the internet. (Curb appeal still counts. 77 percent of buyers drive by or view the home in person)
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Website Features: Homebuyers overwhelming reported that photographs (86 percent) and detailed information (84 percent) were the most important and useful website features. Video or virtual tours (offered on InfoTube.net) are also popular with 68 percent of home buyers. When it comes to photo’s it seems the more you have the better. Studies show that having 16 photo’s instead of 15 resulted in 33 percent more page views. 20 photo’s were the optimum number for maximum exposure, which happens to be the number of photo’s offered on InfoTube.net.
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Yard Sign with an InfoTube or InfoBox: One of the best ways to advertise your property is clearly low tech. 15 percent of all buyers reported that they found their home by seeing a yard sign. And, it seems that all buyers love the convenience of driving by and picking up a brochure to learn more about the house. A whopping 90 percent of buyers are angry or upset if they find an empty InfoTube or InfoBox.
If you need to sell a home, it is vitally important to advertise the property where they buyers are. Don’t sell yourself short. Experience and Research prove that the MLS, the internet and yard signs, with stuffed InfoTubes and InfoBoxes, pay off for the professional real estate agent and for sale by owner, alike.
Thank you for visiting Why6percent.com. We will List your Home on the MLS for $399 and you also receive a Free Featured Home Listing on InfoTube.net , with all features that buyers are looking for. If you need to sell your home, we have you covered. Call us today at 1-800-381-9496.
Home Buyer Talks Straight with Seller’s
So, my husband and I are now in the market for a house! It’s very cool, because it’s definitely a buyers’ market, as it was when we sold. Being on the other side of the equation gives me a whole new perspective, of course, and I’ve been trying to look critically at the houses that we have been seeing so I can pass on my observations to you all, as you are staging and selling your houses. I know that you have lost a bit of leverage, since there are so many houses on the market right now, but there are still things that you can do to help your house stand out. And frankly, I’ve been a little amazed at how some of the sellers whose houses we’ve seen haven’t done those things.
First and foremost, and this may sound like a little thing (but it’s not): Keep your infotubes full! I cannot stress this enough. When we are driving around and see a house that’s for sale, we immediately stop to look for “words.” If the tube is empty, our immediate reaction, fair or not, is “They don’t really want to sell this house.” A neglected infotube could be just an oversight, or it could be a sign of greater neglect. Either way, we don’t even consider those houses. So, if you are still in the house you are selling, for goodness sake, keep that tube full! And if you’re not in the house, make sure that your agent keeps the tube full. It makes a difference. Remember, I am now your potential buyer, and you’ve already lost me!
Depersonalize, please! I consider myself to be a fairly sophisticated buyer–one who is able to look beyond the stage at the bones of the space, but many potential buyers just see what they see. They see the pictures, not the walls behind them. They see the carpet, not the floor underneath. Make sure that what these buyers are seeing is the most tastefully generic stage you can possibly set. We went into a lovely home last weekend–2300sf, soaring ceilings, lovely staircase, immaculately kept. It truly was a lovely home. We didn’t like the layout; it wouldn’t work for us, so we passed. But the people who live there and are trying to sell have written off a large portion of their potential market. There were family photos all around the house and a lot of art–everywhere–that was very personal to them, because it was all religious art. Whether the art was Christian, Islamic, Hindu or Zoroastrian, it makes no difference. Many people will walk into that house and walk back out because they can’t see beyond the stage. I’m not saying you have to be Peter and deny your religion, but you do have to be sensitive to the fact that not all buyers will believe the same things you believe, and many might actually be put off.
As we continue our search, I will continue to bring reports of what I’m seeing out there. I hope that this new phase in our lives will help to focus your resolve as sellers as you get your house sold!
For more information, or to order a copy of I CAN Sell This House: Secrets to Selling Quickly in a Buyers’ Market, please visit I Can Sell This House.
Thank you to Jennifer for writing so truthfully to all home seller’s. We will keep you posted on anyother advise she gathers as she continues her search to buy a home.
Thank you for visiting Why6Percent.com MLS and home marketing services company. Please feel free to search our site for new home listings. And, seller’s call us today at 1-800-381-9496. Our job is to get your home listing in front of people like Jenni and 10 million other home shoppers each month.