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

Nothing could be more important that pricing your Tampa Home accurately. Price it wrong and the buyers and Realtors will just ignore your listing or show it only as a comparison to buy another property.

I offer my clients free professional price coaching to help establish the right price for your Tampa home…That is, of course, if you need pricing help. Some sellers know where to price their property.

I am Keith Gordon and broker for Tampa Bay based ADDvantage® Real Estate Services. I am a flat fee MLS listing broker, a full-service broker and a member of GTAR and Mid-Florida Regional MLS as well as another 25 Florida boards.

I am passing my pricing expertise to all my flat fee MLS Tampa clients on a daily basis. I have developed a technique that is working to well in Tampa to sell our homes faster. I believe my pricing strategies will result in the maximum price for your home or condo. I recommend using my hybrid flat fee MLS listing plan called ADDvantage Success™ to accomplish this. This plan is like full-service but you pay only $699 upfront and $699 at close instead of a 3% listing commission.

Here’s how ADDvantage Success™ works. First, I (we) establish an MLS list price or just consult with you on the price that you have already determined. Once we list your home in the MLS, I assist you in fine tuning your price so we can achieve the maximum amount of Realtor showings.

Once the Realtors are showing your property on a regular basis, our feedback system collects valuable feedback information from Realtors after each showing. We use the feedback to adjust the price within range of buyers’ expectations. When unacceptable offers come, we use this price data as reference points. Our goal to find the sales price where buyers and Realtors want to make an offer. This strategy works because Realtors love to sell well-priced homes and earn the offered commission. Because appraisals are coming in low, you need a sale at a price that is within reach of an appraisal as well.

In a buyers market, I parallel leaving too much room to negotiate in your listing price to fishing for grouper in a lake. What a waste of time! My pricing methodology works well because once the sales price is refined to a point where we are confident we can get a buyer, I coach the buyer’s agents to bring their offers in at full-price. This works for them too because it gives them a defined mission.

My experience with Realtors (I am one too) and pricing homes in Florida runs deep as I have worked along side many sellers, buyers and Realtors in many different Florida cities for 27 years. When sellers use our concierge flat fee MLS listing plan ADDvantage Success™, it allows me negotiate for the sellers right through closing.

It also helps the buyer’s agents because they can close the deal faster. I also save the Realtor from wasting their time writing up low ball offers.

Part of my approach is to make the buyer’s agents trust me. They want to trust me because I help them bring their buyer to a price that my seller is willing to accept. It’s just a matter of time until some Realtor convinces some buyer that this home is a good value at the “listed price.” The Realtor doesn’t want to miss the deal either.

His technique saves time on the market and gets the job done faster. In the past five years, not one seller that I have worked with has made a mistake selling. Prices have been lower every month since 2005. Sellers want to sell and buyers want to buy but deals only get done at or near market values.

The flat fee MLS listing plan that I recommend to achieve this goal is ADDvantage Success™. It allows me to engage the Realtors and help the seller at a “full-service” level. I handle all Realtor calls, appointment setting, contract negotiations, inspections, issues and close the deal at your title company of choice.

ADDvantage Success™ is our most aggressive and success flat fee MLS plan in Florida. The cost is $699 upfront and $699 at close. Because our agents help sell the home as well, if we find the buyer, we waive the $699 at close fee.

Our program called “Agent Activate®” also helps you sell faster because we have the best qualified local agents working with us. The seller only pays one commission with ADDvantage Success usually 3%.

Call any time for questions or visit our ADDvantage Success™ website. ADDvantage Success™ is the way real estate should be…One commission for the buyer’s agent, great Internet marketing and hands on coaching.

1-877-232-9695    1-727 942 2929

Ps…we also have flat fee MLS listing plans starting at $179.

The past 5 years, 12 hours a day, 7 days a week our company has answered our phone “live” servicing Tampa Realtors ®that have called ADDvantage® seeking showing instructions on our flat fee MLS listed properties.　

Our business approach has earned ADDvantage® of Florida a reputation with Realtors® that is impeccable. When they see our name in the MLS as the listing agent they remember us as the company that is always available.　

Our reputation adds value to all those Tampa by owners that choose to list flat fee with us. The reputation of the flat fee MLS service dictates how many Realtor® showings you will receive.　

Most flat fee MLS listing services in Florida answer their phone haphazardly and as a result have a bad reputation with full-service buyer’s agents. If they see a listing from a company that has dis-serviced them, they will most likely pass over it.　

Truth is full-service Realtors® don’t love discount MLS brokers because they see us as competition for listing. We don’t charge a listing commission which saves the by owner seller at least 50%. If Realtors® don’t love us, than we better do a good job making friends by servicing them. We have done that from 8:00am-8:00pm 7 days a week for 5 years in a row. We also blend in as a full-service real estate company as well because we do more than just “traditional” self-represented flat fee MLS listings at ADDvantage®.　

About 50% of our listing at ADDvantage® are hybrid-flat-fee-MLS listings where we represent the seller. We offer 2 such plans, one called ADDvantage Plus™ and the other ADDvantage Success™. The only difference between these 2 plans is with “Plus” the seller keeps all unrepresented buyer leads in an effort to sell the home themselves and pay no commission and with “Success” our local agents work all unrepresented buyers in an attempt to sell the home. With either plan, the seller only pays one buyer’s agent commission. With “Sucess”, the only question is who will be representing the buyer, our agent or an outside agent.　

Another consideration is ADDvantage Plus™ and ADDvantage Success™ listing are imputed into the MLS as “Exclusive Right of Sale Listings” which are the same as any full-service listing. Not Exclusive Agency” which is the listing type of our basic flat fee MLS plan MLS ADDvantage® which costs $349 and all other flat fee or limited service listings.　

“Plus” and “Success” listing improve our overall image in the real estate community because these listing mimic full-service listings in that we take all calls, schedule all showings and negotiate all offers right through closing. This saves 50% in commissions or teh seller possibly pays none with “Plus.”　

List your Tampa home with the company that has earned the trust of Tampa Bay Realtors, ADDvantage®.

727-942-2929

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.

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