Tampa Home Owners Save on Average 65% in Real Estate Commissions when using our Flat fee MLS Listing Service

Flat Fee MLS listings are selling faster than new ones are being listed in Tampa

The Florida real estate market has changed over the past 5 months as buyers and sellers expectations of value are narrowing. I am Keith Gordon, broker and co-owner of a Tampa flat fee MLS listing and full-service discount real estate firm, ADDvanatge®.

Our inventory of available homes in Florida dropped 21% from March-May 2010, in part, due to the expiring tax credits and the overall narrowing of sellers and buyers expectations of value.

We have 2 levels of service at ADDvantage® for the cost conscience home seller. One plan is a traditional flat fee MLS listing where the seller represents themselves and the other is our full-service discount plan called ADDvantage Success where I represent the seller just like a traditional full-service agent would. The cost of ADDvantage Success is $699 up-front and 1/3 of 1% at close.

We do save Tampa, Florida home sellers an average 65% of commissions and have a reputation as being the most reliable discount real estate service in Florida.

We offers many helpful tools on our website for our flat fee MLS sellers to guide them through the process of selling a home without an traditional agent. We have spent the past 6 years building the most advanced and intuitive MLS discount listing platform enabling sellers to list, manage and sell a home without paying 6%.

One might think that this type of service is a “no-frills do-it-yourself and good luck” way of selling a home. To the contrary, ADDvantage® is actually a serviced based discount real estate company similar to a Charles Schwab. To us, it’s all about offering the best technology and service to our customers with our emphasis on cost savings and transparency.

Our concept of selling real estate in Florida is to present the seller with a marketing system backed by heavy customer service. We remain the only Florida flat fee MLS listing service or full-service real estate company that prides itself on never missing a showing opportunity as we are open for business at 8:00am each day and close at 8:00pm, 7 DAYS a WEEK! . All calls are answered live by professional MLS assistants and I am always available to assist as well.

Our customers are by owners, sellers who want full-service but are still interested in saving about 50% in commissions, builders, out-of-state Realtors that are selling property in Florida, in-state Realtors hat need to sell a property outside their MLS board coverage area and other professionals such as home inspectors, appraisers and others that are “in-the-know.” When a professional reads about what we do at ADDvantage®, they are impressed and they truly should be because what we do everyday is nothing short of an extraordinary effort to exceed our sellers expectations. We have hundreds of very satisfied Tampa flat fee MLS home sellers.

If you compare what ADDvantage® offers with our 100% electronic website (no faxing or emails), to our advanced Internet marketing and reliable customer service, you will agree we are hands down the best value of any Florida based flat fee MLS listing service.

Call us anytime, 1-877-232-9695 or 727-942-2929. Please read my latest helpful selling tips on appraisals and other relevant tips on selling real estate in Florida.

ADDvantage® is a Tampa’s By Owner, Flat Fee MLS, semi full-service and full-service real estate brokerage firm.

We have always pioneered the way to innovation in discount real estate. Our newest plan is called ADDvantage Success™.

ADDvantage Success™ is a unique blend of all our best features we have ever offered into one simple, yet effective, flat fee listing plan…And, you pay a low upfront flat rate price of $499.

Our Internet marketing package and service commitment is second to none…And, you only offer a commission to the buyer’s agent…NO LISTING COMMISSION!

ADDvantage Success™ brings the best of flat fee MLS and full service together. We offer powerful Internet marketing and we will post your listing on important sites such as Homes.com, Realtor.com, Zillow, MSN, Yahoo, Craigslist, Vast, Zillow, AOL, RSS feeds, IDX feeds and Oodle…Plus 100′s more sites that will you get more exposure and sell faster.

Highlights of ADDvantage Success™

• 9 month MLS listing in the Mid Florida Regional MLS or Greater Tampa Association of Realtors. You can cancel anytime with no fee, complications or strings attached.
• Agent Assure®…Because we answer our phone at ADDvantage® 7 days a week from 8:00am-8:00pm, you’ll never miss a Realtor® showing request. Agent Assure® is our concierge showing service where we schedule and confirm all showings for you so there is no need to speak with a Realtor®. Your customized showing instructions will be given to Realtors® and an email will be sent for your records. Agent Assure® is more professional than the seller scheduling the appointment. ($199 value, free with ADDvantage Success™)
• Feedback. Everyone wants to receive feedback from Realtors®. Our system automatically sends an email to each Realtor® 2 hours after they show requesting feedback and you’ll receive a copy by email. ($99 value, free with ADDvantage Success™)
• Agent Activate®…Local knowledge helps you sell faster and at a higher price. Our local Tampa agents know your home. They will act quickly to show and sell your home. If one of our agents is successful, we will REFUND the ADDvantage Success™ $499 up front fee at closing. Our Agent Activate® service ensures our best Tampa agents or local affiliates will work diligently with each buyer prospect. You pay only the offered buyer’s agent commission which is the same commission you are offering any agent (which is typically 3%). There is no listing commission. If our agent sells your home, they’ll work out all the details from contract to closing. We will pre-qualify buyers, show your home, write the offer as transaction brokers, negotiate the offer, work through and handle the inspection and inspection related negotiating, if any. As well…Assist with financing, work with your title company of choice or real estate attorney and complete the closing in a fast professional manor. Having an agent assist with negotiations often results in a higher sales price for you and less hassles.
• Broker Assist… Advice 7 days a week. Most offers will come from outside buyer’s agents, not from an ADDvantage® agent. If this occurs, our broker will consult, advise, review the contract, check for missing documents and assist in closing the transaction. Realtors® prefer our “broker Assist” over dealing directly with the seller because this facilitates their offer and enhances their changes of getting a deal done. There will be a transaction fee of $395 at close if this occurs. (A $799 value)
• Street Smart ADDvantage®…The most effective Realtor® eblast in Florida. Since 2005, ADDvantage® has been emailing Tampa Realtors® our high commission properties. The Street Smart ADDvantage® eblast is now the best read Realtor-to-Realtor email in Florida. It is reserved for those sellers offering a 4% or greater buyer’s agent commission. Every two weeks, our system sends most Tampa Realtors® that work or live within 35 miles of your property a copy of the Street Smart ADDvantage® report. (A $599 value, free with ADDvantage Success™)
• An Exclusive Right of Sale Listing in MLS…Better than Exclusive Agency. At times, limited service listing (a.k.a “flat fee MLS”) are not shown because Realtors® possibly consider them more work as compared with full-service. While illegal to do so, this does happen. But, the cost savings to sellers from listing flat fee far outweighs any possible lost showings. But, with ADDvantage Success™, we have solved this dilemma by using an Exclusive Right of Sale Listing, NOT an Exclusive Agency (limited service).
• Realtor.com Showcase…25 Pictures on Realtor.com. The best listing in Realtor.com is a “showcase” listing.” This upgrade will allow for a 2400 character property description and 25 pictures. If you have a Virtual Tour, it will be posted there as well…And, on getmoreoffers.com and Homes.com. ($49 value, free with ADDvantage Success™)

If 2,900 Realtor calls or buyers requests for showings went unanswered over a period of 12 months would that hurt your chances of selling your Tampa home?

At ADDvantage, we have answered 2,900 calls live over the past year for our Florida flat fee MLS clients. 1,000 of these calls have come after-hours. Every single call was handled professionally, recorded in our seller’s account, an email sent to our seller, a link sent to the interested party to your Tampa MLS listing at ADDvantage and a detailed description of the call was included in that email.

If the caller was a Realtor, we get their Florida real estate license number confirming they are truly Realtors and send them permission by email to deal directly with you. We include your phone numbers just in case they miss place them. If a seller chooses ADDvantage Plus, our contract-to-close plan, we do not send permission to Realtors to deal with the seller because we represent sellers in this hybrid-full-service flat fee plan.

This 8:00am-8:00pm 7 days a week phone concierge service at ADDvantage is guaranteed in our ADDvantage flat fee MLS Listing Agreement. It is a part of our service commitment to all our flat fee MLS sellers. This is also one of the reasons why we charge a bit more for a listing in the MLS with ADDvantage.

Paying attention to the phone ethic is a critical detail to being successful selling by owner MLS in Florida. The flat fee MLS broker is the gatekeeper of sales leads for the by owner MLS seller. I know that most flat fee websites say all leads and calls comes right to you so having great phone support is unnecessary. Well, they are misleading the public because they can’t and won’t commit to any posted or guaranteed hours of phone support. Truth…flat fee MLS seller’s phone numbers are published in the MLS under Realtor remarks. But, the listing broker of record (ADDvantage or whoever is listing the property in the MLS) phone number is also listed in the MLS. Since 1913, Realtors, by a code of ethics, have always called this listing broker to get showing instructions and negotiate all offers. Realtors, by this same code, cannot deal directly with the seller without the expressed permission from the listing broker. This is why the listing broker receives so many calls from Realtors. It is also the reason why ADDvantage gives Realtors our expressed permission in an email that they can deal directly with our seller clients.

In Realtor.com, the biggest real estate website in the word, the sellers contact information is not permitted. All these buyer leads go to the listing broker. Make sure the listing agreement that you sign with a flat fee broker clearly states that all buyer leads belong to the seller, not the broker.

When you list flat rate MLS through ADDvantage, all buyer leads are yours to work so you can sell ‘by owner’ and not pay any commission. If a Realtor sells your home, you pay just that Realtor a commission which you establish during the sign up process. Typically, flat fee MLS sellers offer between 2-3%.

Some by owner MLS sellers offer more commissions to Realtors (buyer agents) to garner more attention. We offer a flat fee listing program called Street Smart ADDvantage that sends 12,000 emails to all Tampa Bay Realtors twice a month informing them of your higher than average commission. The Street Smart ADDvantage eblast is Florida best-read Realtor-to-Realtor email.

Our basic flat fee MLS listing program is $349 for a 9 month listing in any Florida MLS. Street Smart ADDvantage at $599 and ADDvantage Plus cost $799 and $500 at close. ADDvantage Plus, our contract-to-close plan, includes Street Smart Eblast marketing as long as you offer a 4% buyer’s agent commission.

Call us anytime, 1-877-232-9695

The answer is no. There are hundreds of flat fee websites in Florida and only 2 or 3 of these services are Tampa based. 80% of them are not even licensed in Florida to offer flat fee MLS…the just refer you to a Tampa flat fee MLS service such as ADDvantage. Some of the Florida based For Sale By Owner (FSBO) MLS companies are not genuine flat fee MLS services. They are hanging the shingle “flat fee” on their websites to garner attention from the public but what they are offering is NOT flat fee MLS.

The definition of a genuine flat fee MLS service would be one that allows their client seller to cancel their flat fee listing at anytime for “free” and the flat fee broker would comply and “unconditionally” withdraw the listing from GTAR (MLS) allowing another broker immediate access to re-list the property. A genuine flat fee listing also sends all buyer leads from Realtor.com and other Internet sources directly to the seller…not to the flat fee MLS broker. A genuine flat fee listing service pubishes their listing agreemnet online so the public can review it before paying for a listings. And lastly, a genuine flat rate service offers great phone support.

Without going into great detail about all the crappy flat fee MLS tricks, ploys and schemes…remember “caveat emptor” when listing in the MLS.

Only list flat fee with a local Tampa MLS broker and make sure they offer a genuine flat fee product and not some look-a-like website that benefits the flat fee broker and not the flat fee seller.

Have a question about listing flat fee MLS in Tampa? Call us 727-942-2929.