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.

Tampa Bay by-owners are saving money by listing flat fee MLS…ADDvantage® now makes it simple to understand how flat fee listing works by watching our flat fee MLS videos.

727-942-2929

site: www.getmoreoffers.com

By owners in Florida are choosing ADDvantage® to list flat fee in the MLS because homeowners need every advantage when selling in today’s price driven real estate market as every penny counts these days!

ADDvantage® is a Florida based flat fee MLS listing service and we are direct members of 28 Florida Realtor associations from Tampa, St. Pete, Clearwater, Orlando, Florida Keys, Marco Island, Ocala, Jacksonville, Gainesville, Tallahassee, The Pan Handle, Bradenton, Naples, Ft. Myers, Ft. Lauderdale, Boca and just about every small city in between.

Flat fee MLS is growing in popularity because it saves sellers 50% in commissions without sacrificing service. We offer so much service at ADDvantage® and superior Internet marketing that it makes perfect sense to list your Florida home with the company that has earned your business.

In today’s price driven and Internet based market, sellers need an advantage when competing against short sales and REO/ bank owed properties. Things might not improve for at least 5 years. Lower sales commissions would be an excellent start and ADDvantage® will finish the job…Take a look at our Florida flat fee MLS sales statistics!

When listing flat fee MLS, Tampa by-owners only offer a commission to buyer’s agents. Our fee for a basic 9 month flat fee listing is $349 which includes a listing in GTAR, Mid-Florida Regional or Pasco Pinellas MLS. There is an advantage if you list through Mid-Florida MLS as that MLS is a conglomerate of MLS boards from Orlando to Tampa Bay and down to Venice.

With flat fee service, there is no binding contract, (view flat fee MLS listing agreement) you can cancel anytime with no fee or penalty and sell it yourself, by-owner, without having to pay any commission.

We also provide Internet marketing on hundreds of sites such as AOL, MSN, Homes.com, Realtor.com, Craigslist, getmoreoffers, Yahoo, the Bargain Network and many more.

Listing flat fee in the MLS with ADDvantage® is smart because it not only saves by-owners 50% in commissions but in this price driven market, the lower you list your property the more showings you will receive and ultimately more offers…our name is true as we do GetMoreOffers.com.

Our service commitment to our sellers makes ADDvantage® your best choice in Florida to list flat fee in the MLS. Our live phone support starts each day at 8:00am and ends at 8:00pm, 7 days a week. We are the only Florida discount real estate company or full-service to do this. ADDvantage® does this because we understand real estate is a sales business where each call is important to us as it could be your sale. We have done crazy phone support for six years now and continue to do so. We enjoy the best reputation in Florida of any full-service or discount real estate company because of it. When Realtors see our name they know what to expect when they call for us for showing instructions…Real-time live support 7 days a week!

We also give more control to every aspect of your listing because each seller has their own seller control panel.…So changing price, commissions, increasing marketing by using Street Smart ADDvantage® Realtor Eblast is all seamless, 100% on-line and electronic. No faxes, just clicks.

Even Realtors trust ADDvantage® to list their client’s listings when they need MLS coverage outside their primary MLS area because we cover the entire state. Home owners, investors, builders and REO all use ADDvantage®.

Contact us:

727-942-2929

site: www.getmoreoffers.com

Is selling a home using flat fee MLS just a matter of finding the cheapest flat fee MLS website and off you go?

Did you know that 90% of the websites that you see are NOT even members of GTAR (Greater Tampa Association of Realtors) or MFR (Mid-Florida Regional MLS).

Do you know that 99% of all flat fee MLS services in Florida do not offer live 8:00am-8:00pm phone support? You might say, who needs this type of service anyway because all calls come to me!

I am Keith Gordon, broker for flat fee MLS Tampa firm ADDvantage®. There’s a reason why we are the most respected and trusted flat fee MLS listing firm in Tampa and it starts with three things we do better than anyone else.　

1) Buyer leads and how they are handled is one area that Tampa sellers do not fully understand. Our policy with regard to buyer leads from Realtor.com and other sites has been effective since we started ADDvantage® in 2005. Once a buyer lead finds its way to ADDvantage®, it is promptly forwarded to our sellers in real time 7 days a week from 8:00am-8:00pm. Over a typical week, we handle over 300 calls from buyers and Realtors®. On a typical weekend, we handle over 40 calls. This level of service is unheard of in the real estate industry. Between these hours, all calls and emails are handled “live” by one of our ADDvantage® staff members. Each email or call is transcribes into an email and forwarded to you. Our relentless attention to this and other important details has earned ADDvantage® the best reputation in all Florida for delivering the most reliable and trusted flat fee MLS service.

2) The next often misunderstood part of listing flat fee in the MLS is Realtor.com and IDX. Most Tampa by owners do not fully understand Realtor.com and IDX feeds and why should they. The fact is Realtor.com does not allow any seller contact information or the word “FSBO” to be published. Only the listing broker’s phone number and name can appear. Every Realtor® website such as c21, ColdwellBanker.com and remax.com receive their MLS listing data directly from Realtor.com through the IDX feed. Sellers, therefore, must implicitly trust their flat fee MLS broker to professionally handle buyer leads and calls that come to the broker.

3) Another area that concerns many sellers is “Offers.” Sellers would prefer their offers from Realtors® to going directly to them and not through the flat fee broker. At ADDvantage®, we facilitate all offers by forwarding them directly to our sellers from 8:00am-8:00pm 7 days. We then call and notify each seller when an offer has been forwarded by email. In our 5 years of being in business we have never mishandled an offer or lost a deal because of our incompetence. Most offers do come through ADDvantage® as Realtors® often stand by industry protocol and prefer that the “listing broker” initially receive the offer and then forward the offer to the “self-represented” seller. Once the seller has the offer, the buyer’s agent and seller negotiate the offer to its conclusion. By the way, it is clearly stated in the MLS to call seller directly for all showings and the seller’s phone number is published.

Trust remains an issue when money is involved. Tampa home owners that do choose ADDvantage® to sell using flat fee MLS will soon believe it is possible to trust a flat rate MLS service, receive excellent service and still save 50% on the cost of selling a home vs. a traditional listing. Many of our sellers (27%) pay no commission at all because they have sold without a Realtor®. ADDvantage® has earned our reputation as Tampa’s most trusted and hardest working flat fee MLS broker because we consistently deliver more offers, more buyer leads and Realtor® feedback on each showings. We offer this level of service 7 days a week from 8:00am-8:00pm for 5 years in a row.

We offer 5 flat fee MLS plans. This blog was focused on our standard “self-representation” flat fee MLS plan called MLS ADDvantage®. But, we also offer 2 flat fee plans that are very similar to full-service in that we handle all calls and negotiate all offers right through closing. These 2 plans are called ADDvantage Success™ and ADDvantage Plus™. The only difference between them is with ADDvantage Success™, our local agents have the right to sell your home using the buyer leads that come our way while ADDvantage Plus™ is “contract-to-close representation” while the seller retains all buyer leads. If you have questions about which flat rate plan is best suited for you, call us anytime 1-877-232-9695 or visit our website at getmoreoffers.com.

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.

Flat fee MLS is defined as receiving a bundle of specific real estate services for an advance payment. These services are further defined by the language contained in the listing agreement. This listing agreement will bind the seller and the listing broker to do certain things during the listing period and possibly afterwards.

The listing agreement is the single most important document to review and understand before listing your home with any broker. There are several reasons why flat fee MLS services in Tampa do not present their listing agreements to sellers before they request payment for such services.

Many flat fee MLS websites on the Internet are not licensed real estate brokers in Florida. Therefore, they have no listing agreement to offer.

Tampa sellers have a choice between listing with a local Tampa Flat Fee MLS broker or with a national flat fee MLS “website.” If the seller chooses the national flat fee MLS “website” to list their property, that “websites” sole function is to take your payment and refer you to a Florida broker. The number one reason why sellers choose a national flat fee “website” over a company such as ADDvantage is because they have not researched the differences between the flat fee services.

If you list with a national “website”, you are stuck with the “unknown” listing broker’s operation (hours that they answer the phone, professionalism, marketing) and his/her listing agreement that will soon be presented to you by the “unknown” Tampa flat fee broker.”

To avoid this situation, simply make sure you review the listing agreement before paying. A simple way to differentiate between a “national referrer” broker and a local broker would be to call them and ask. As well, if you do not see a listing agreement clearly published on their website then you can assume they don’t want you to see it.

Another indication of a “national website” is their reference to terminology such as “we are the largest national flat fee MLS website in America.” The word “referral website” would mean the same thing.

“The 4 greatest concerns when scrutinizing a flat fee MLS listing agreement are…Buyer Leads, Cancellation fee, the right to cancel at will and hours they answer their phone

One concern a seller would have with a flat fee service would be the right to cancel their listing and re-list with another broker. Some flat fee companies have cancellation fees written into their listing agreement or have language that traps the seller into listing with their “predetermined” full-service broker that is (of course) affiliated with the flat fee broker enabling a referral kickback commission. A convoluted scheme but it happens everyday. The language below would prevent this from happening…

“Seller can cancel their MLS anytime by providing broker with written request. Broker will “unconditionally” withdraw listing from MLS within 24 hours. There is no cancellation fee.”

The term “unconditional” is the language that gives the seller the right to cancel and re-list with another broker at any time.

Many full-service and flat fee companies have language in their listing agreement that references the word “conditional withdrawal.”

If the words “conditional withdrawal” are found anywhere in your listing agreement then presume your broker is trapping you to pay a fee. If these words are anywhere in your listing agreement, the listing broker will not remove the listing from the MLS as “unconditional” but rather “suspend it” until the remainder of the listing period expires. During this “suspended period”, no other broker can take your listing.

A closing fee is not as common as a “cancellation fee” but all the same it would be quite a surprise at closing if your HUD settlement statement had a 1% commission going to the flat fee broker.

Buyer leads from Realtor.com are another reason to have an articulate listing agreement.

The flat fee MLS listing agreement must clearly state if the seller receives all buyer leads from Realtor.com and other Internet sources.

Some flat fee services in Tampa actually say in their listing agreement (and proudly display it) that they TAKE all buyer leads. Other flat fee companies just don’t specify who gets these leads.

ADDvantage flat fee MLS (a Florida flat fee MLS broker) fielded just under 3,000 leads during the past 12 months from Realtors and buyers requesting showing instructions. 1000 of these calls were answered after-hours…that is the reason why Tampa flat fee MLS sellers need to know what hours their flat fee broker answers the phone.

Read more about listing flat fee in the MLS