There’s a new Flat Fee Listing Service in Washington State, and it’s about time. I’m Chuck Marunde, and I’m the founder of iRealty Virtual Brokers. I’d like to tell you about a new flat fee listing service, and why I created this service for homeowners who want to sell.
First, traditional real estate bricks and mortar brokerages charge way way too much in commissions. Sellers who list with a traditional broker are not getting their money’s worth, at least not for the massive commissions they pay their brokers. Most people already know this.
Second, traditional real estate brokers over-promise and under-deliver. They under-deliver in the areas of marketing, negotiating expertise, contracts and legal issues, due diligence issues, financing issues, dealing with contingencies and objections by buyers, and numerous issues that rear their ugly heads prior to closing. Having been both a real estate lawyer and a broker, I’m often surprised at the stunning lack of knowledge of listing brokers. That lack of knowledge and inexperience can cost a seller a lot of money and stress.
Third, traditional real estate brokers don’t do much more than put a listing in the MLS and wait until it sells. I know that because that’s the number one complaint from home sellers I’ve been hearing for decades. It’s an old complaint, but still valid today.
Fourth, the entire world of marketing and advertising has dramatically changed over the last decade, and the traditional bricks and mortar brokerage is no longer relevant. The world of selling a home is now high tech and streamlined and low cost. You should not have to pay for all the traditional overhead and office space and outdated advertising methods of a listing brokerage.
This flat fee real estate commission is truly unique. This new flat fee listing service will put your listing in the Northwest MLS, the largest MLS in Washington State, and it will get syndicated to many many sites on the Internet. These are just a few below. Chuck Marunde will provide you the kind of guidance and professionalism you would expect from a 6% broker but don’t get. That’s because Chuck has been a broker and a real estate attorney for a lifetime, and now he is leveraging all that knowledge and experience for his flat fee listing clients.
The traditional bricks and mortar brokerage model has been charging a large real estate commission forever. I started in real estate sales when I was 21 in the mid-1970s, and commissions haven’t changed. They were 5% to 6% to 7% in various markets, and they still are today for single family homes.
Back then when a homeowner listed and sold his home, he paid a typical commission of 6% or $6,000. If there was a listing agent and an agent representing the buyer, each got $3,000.
Today, even though prices have shot up many times, the commission is still the same. A homeowner who lists and sells a home today for $800,000 pays a commission of $48,000. Even if the commission is 5% in your market, that’s still $40,000.
That’s a lot of money, especially in a hot market when all the listing agent has to do is input your listing information into the MLS and sit back and wait. Many homes in a hot market, like the one we’ve just been through, were selling in days or even hours.
In my market I watched some for-sale-by-owners get posted on Zillow and sell quickly. I sold some of those FSBOs quickly to my own buyers for a fraction of the traditional commission. By the time we got to closing everyone was happy, including me.
In a hot hot market, a seller doesn’t need a traditional listing broker. In fact, you don’t need a traditional bricks and mortar brokerage in any kind of market. The world has changed, and the brokers no longer hold the keys to the castle. We have something called the Internet, and for those who master Internet marketing and powerful tools like SEO or search engine optimization, blogs, videos, and online books, as I have, you can reach buyers for your home no matter where they live.
Here’s a dirty little secret the industry doesn’t want you to know. Buyers now find their homes on the Internet themselves, meaning that listing agents are no longer the reason buyers can find your home. Today buyers typically find a home they want to look at online, and then they call a real estate broker. You can save tens of thousands of dollars by just having buyers call you direct.
But you’re not alone. I will equip you to do everything you need to do, and I will be your listing broker and consultant. How much is the flat fee? The flat fee listing is a one-time fee of $5,000. Compare that to a home that recently sold in my area for $1.5 million with a traditional 5% fee of $75,000. When sellers around Washington discover this service and what I do for them they don’t even get from the traditional brokers, I may be busy.
There’s a lot to explain about this new flat fee listing service, and I have all the details for anyone in the State of Washington who is thinking about listing their home and selling at WaStateFlatFee.com.
Last Updated on July 28, 2022 by Chuck Marunde
