Another Industry Ravaged by Technology

Here. Technology is wonderful for eliminating the inefficiencies in a market. In the '20s, there were "bucket shops" that operated on old stock information as gambling halls for delayed, off-street trading. By the '80s that was all computerized for pros only. In the '90s, the Internet took that all away, making it much harder to trade on the inefficiencies in the market for the pro, while enabling real-time trading for the average Joe. Technology has ravaged many an industry, providing cars instead of carriages, MP3s instead of albums, MPEGs instead of movies (this is just starting) and now fake diamonds instead of real diamonds. The goal is always the same: bring the convenience to more people, cheaper, which means eliminating the inefficiencies, in this case the diamond cartels, out of the market. My vote for a market ripe for such treatment is real estate. Why I'm penalized 3% of the sale price of my house for data entry into MLS, the national real estate database, and checking the paperwork (something I could get done by a real estate attorney for a few hundred dollars) is beyond me. I need my house entered into MLS if I'm going to make it known by buyer's agents and I need to keep paying them 3% or they won't bring their customers to see my house, but the 3% I pay to my seller's agent is just a waste. Can some please ravage real estate for me? Thanks. : )

There are companies that will list your house in the MLS for a flat fee, plus a little more if you want paperwork help. A lot of buyer's realtors don't like dealing with them though, so you don't really come out any further ahead.

A good realtor will earn that 3% though. They don't just sit back and wait to collect, they actively sell.

IME, YMMV.

Cool! What companies list your house in MLS for a flat fee?

There are a number of companies popping up that have listings independent from the MLS. Check out www.WeList.com in Canada. I agree with Lee that a good selling realtor is worth his weight in gold, but the trick is finding one.

These aren't recommendations, only examples: helpusell.com, flatfeeusa.com.

It would be best to do a google for "mls flat fee (city)" since mls cartels are local in nature.

Be careful if you go down that road. I searched for a house for 2 years and never met a realtor that would deal with any of the flat rate or FSBO houses.

Finding a selling agent worth their 3% is a rare thing, however, we did fine a husband/wife pair that went way beyond that. They were our selling agent(s) for our last house and buying agent(s) for our new house. The old was thirty years old and had quite a few “fix-it” items in the contract. The husband came over several days on his own time and helped me with quite a few of them.

A few notes on MLS I found, listed them at:
http://radio.weblogs.com/0119646/2003/08/14.html#a83

Check out http://www.isoldmyhouse.com/

I haven't used the service but they advertise on the radio here in Connecticut all the time.

I know a guy who recently sold his house here in NY. He took an add out in the local papers. when brokers called him he offered the broker a 1% finders fee. In a normal sale I believe the agent gets about .5% while the agency (listing and sellers) get the rest.

They are more than willing to act independantly from their agency.

It's not the full coverage that the local MLS will get you but it's something... and worth a try...

Surely Redmond has something like this
www.yhd.com?

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