Orlando Saves Over 50% in Real Estate Commissions

Our Orlando Flat Fee MLS listings are selling faster than we are getting new ones

Over the past 4 months, buyers and sellers in Orlando are coming closer together with their expectations of value. This narrowing of these “price-expectations” along with the added urgency of the expiring tax credit deadline has depleted our inventory of available MLS listings homes in Florida by 21%.

I see the real estate market in Florida completely differently now as we move into the second-half of 2010. I am Keith Gordon, broker and co-owner of a Florida flat fee MLS listing and full-service discount real estate firm, ADDvanatge®. We are a state-wide flat fee MLS listing service that specializes in being “available” for sellers, buyers and Realtor 7 days a week from 8:00am-8:00pm.

As a flat fee MLS broker, I primarily work with sellers so I have a unique and accurate view of how they are pricing their homes and I see a dramatic change in their expectations.

There remains a few “hold-outs” that bought right at the top in 2005 and possibly 2006 that remain 12-15% over-priced. But, unlike past years such as 2008 and 2009 where there were more over-priced MLS listings than well-priced ones, I see the reverse now.

It is not uncommon to to a new flat fee MLS listing at ADDvantage® sell during the first 2 weeks of being active in the MLS. This means that seller priced their Orlando home within a few percentage points of appraised  value. When a seller does this, every Realtor that has attempted to negotiate a home with their buyers and failed due to over-priced and inflexible sellers pounce of these well-priced listings.

Listing with one of ADDvantage’s® flat fee MLS listing plans helps the seller price their homes better because we don’t charge 6% to list but rather a flat fee starting at $349. This saves the Orlando home owner at least 50%.

Every poorly price home we have at ADDvantage is still active. I can recall about 10 homes out of our 147 we currently have listed in the MLS that are over-priced. They have been priced poorly from the start and continue to be priced behind the curve. The typical scenario of this type of listing is “we aren’t selling if we can’t get “x.” But “x” has nothing to do with current market value. I have yet to see one of these listing sell.

At ADDvantage®, we are the messenger, albeit a good one!. We list Orlando homes in the MLS, we market aggressively on the Internet and I represent many of the sellers ar ADDvantage® who use our full-service discount listing service ADDvantage Success.

There are two distinct advantages of listing flat fee in the MLS with ADDvantage®. The service and marketing are excellent and you save at least 50% in real estate commissions.

There are also two distinct advantages of using our full-service discounted flat fee plan ADDvantage Success. If you going to sell a home in today’s market, you must sell within what I refer to as the “appraisal envelop.” Every successful seller at ADDvantage® gets their deal done somewhere within this envelop. What I do for the sellers that I represent is get a deal done faster and at the high-end of this envelop. The extra cost to the seller over our traditional flat fee MLS “self-representation” plan is $350 up-front and a additional 1/3 of 1% at close or $330 per $100,000 in sales value. My value to home sellers is professionalism from start to finish. I do expect to get my sellers a sales price at the high-end of appraised value and I make sure no buyer’s agent takes advantage of one of my sellers or that no buyer is engaged that can’t close.

If, by chance, I push the buyer’s agent too far in value and we don’t appraise out, then the seller can always opt out of the contract, negotiate the difference by meeting in the middle, the buyer can agree to pay the original contract price or a combination of asking the buyer to take some or all of the seller’s closing costs such as documentary stamps on the deed or title policy.

My best advice to sell a home today is get the most for it and go buy another home at these bargain prices. 

Call anytime, 1-877-232-9695 or 727-942-2929. Might check out of smart home selling tips.

Orlando by-owners are using flat fee listings to gain a competitive advantage.

ADDvantage® now makes it simple to understand how flat fee listing works by watching our flat fee MLS videos.

In today’s price driven real estate market, every penny counts these days and ADDvantage® is leading the way on this cost saving campaign by offering the best by-owner flat fee MLS listing service.

ADDvantage® holds direct MLS membership with 28 Florida Realtor Associations from Ft. Myers, Ft. Lauderdale,  Orlando, Florida Keys, Marco Island,  Ocala, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, The Pan Handle, Bradenton, Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater, Gainesville, Naples, Boca and just about every small Florida city in between.

Listing Flat fee in the MLS has grown in popularity because sellers save 50% in commissions without sacrificing marketing or service. We offer the best live phone support and superior Internet marketing so selling your Florida home is easy and cost effective. ADDvantage® has been working overtime for years earning the respect of fellow Realtors and by-owners throughout Florida.

In today’s price driven buyer’s market, sellers must sell and compete along side short sales and bank owned properties. Lower sales commissions are an excellent starting point to get noticed and sold faster. ADDvantage® has done a great job in Florida for by-owners…Just take a look at our flat fee MLS sales statistics!

When listing flat fee MLS, in Orlando, by-owners only pay a commission to buyer’s agents. If you sell without a Realtor, no commission is due. Our basic 9 month flat fee listing is just $349 which includes a listing in Mid-Florida Regional.

With flat fee MLS, there is no binding listing agreement (view flat fee MLS listing agreement) and you can cancel anytime, with a moments notice and without a fee or penalty.

Our Internet marketing is superior and we will list your home, condo, commercial property or vacant land on hundreds of sites such as MSN, homes.com, Craigslist, AOL, Realtor.com, getmoreoffers, Bargain Network, Yahoo and many more.

Our service commitment to our Orlando by owners makes ADDvantage® your best partner in Florida to list flat fee in the MLS. We offer the most reliable live phone support from 8:00am and to 8:00pm every day o the week including Saturday and Sunday.

We are the only Florida discount real estate broker or full-service real estate company to do this. We truly understand real estate is a sales business and we understand each call is important and maybe your sale. We have offered this live phone support for six years now and continue to do so. We enjoy the best reputation in Florida among fellow Realtors because of it. When Realtors see our name in the MLS, they know what to expect when they call. Real-time live support 7 days a week!

We also give every seller more control over your MLS listing because each seller has their own seller control panel to change price, commission, view who has viewed your listing and all seamless, 100% on-line and electronic. No faxes, or emails, just clicks.

Even Realtors trust ADDvantage® to list their own listings when they need marketing outside their local MLS coverage. Homeowners, builders and investors all trust ADDvantage®.

Contact ADDvantage 727-942-2929

ADDvantage, an Orlando flat fee MLS listing service, designed a special software program in 2005 that delivers an email to all Realtors in Orlando within a 35 mile radius of a Street Smart ADDvantage flat fee MLS listed property. Our Realtor-to-Realtor Street Smart email has become the best read email that Realtor receives of any kind in Florida.

To get in the Street Smart ADDvantage email, an Orlando seller must offer a 4% or greater commission to the buyer’s agent and be listed in the Street Smart program offered only through ADDvantage. Realtors from other companies call ADDvantage all the time requesting that we include their listings in the Street Smart ADDvantage email.

The Street Smart ADDvantage Realtor eblast program has been a huge success for the Orlando Realtors and the flat fee MLS sellers that have used this plan in Florida.

Over 1,000,000 emails have been delivered to Florida Realtors each year. Our flat fee MLS website, getmoreoffers.com, tracts the number of hits that each Street Smart ADDvantage listing receives so sellers can see their results.

Before we launched Street Smart ADDvantage in 2005, we researched the concept of paying higher buyer agent incentives and made the following conclusions.

Our Street Smart ADDvantage properties would get shown more by Realtors and sell better than other standard MLS listing. That would be only logical since a Realtor that sees a 4% or 5% commission offer will likely not pass up a chance to show that property and possibly sell that home.

In summary, the theory that supports the concept of Street Smart ADDvantage is higher commissions are often cheaper than price reductions. For example, a 1% commission on a $500,000 home is $5,000. When negotiating with a buyer or Realtor, price increments do not move in $5,000 clips but more like $10,000-$15,000. The extra $5,000 in commission pales in comparison to dropping $15,000 off the ask price.

Call us anytime, if you have questions about listing flat fee in Orlando MLS

1-877-232-9695 or visit our site getmoreoffers.com.