Real Estate Listing questions?

[784caroline]

Can someone tell me what are the Real Estate Commission Charges to List a house either through an MLS agency or VLS ???? I know whatever the VLS rate is its fixed but do MLS agencies offer negotiable rates??

DO either of these listing agencies have hidden fees such as "Document preparation" or similar fees!

HOw long is the typical listing agreement...and is this fixed!

[logdog]

I don't know if this helps but I did a FSBO last year through a limited listing agency and they charged me (if memory serves) $395 for an MLS listing.

[iandwk]

The real estate commission has nothing to do with percentage charged by real estate agencies. They are all free to set their own rate, and they are not allowed by law to get together and set a hard and fast rate, though most use 6%. If they did they would be in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act. It is negotiable, but not by a lot. It's called a multiple listing service because if one agency sells another's listings, the commission gets split 50/50. Just as an example, when selling a home for $200,000, each agency gets $6000. The selling agent gets, depending on where he works, usually upwards of 40% of the $6000. If the listing agency negotiated a 4% commision, do the math for the selling agent. He doesn't get near as much and will usually not bother to show a house with such a low cooperative commission. Therefore the house may stay on the market a long time until it sells.

If you are concerned about paying a commission, and I can't blame you if you are, keep an eye on Lyle Gant's website at what houses similar to yours are selling for and price your accordingly. One mistake made by the majority of FSBO's is they ask far more than those who are using real estate agents. Who do you think the prospective buyer will buy from when 2 houses that are practically identical are on the market and one is $10-20,000 higher than the other?

As far as I know there is fee of $250 to the agency that covers their costs for advertising and marketing the house and other incidentals. They don't usually charge other fees. All the other fees at closing are charged by lenders, municipal governments and attorneys. That includes doc stamps and filing fees and such like. Make sure you get a good faith estimate from your lender or your agent before you close. That way there will be no surprises at closing.

I can't say for sure about Florida, but in Georgia we usually listed a house from 6 months to a year. It is negotiable and flexible. Also in Georgia the seller has the right to cancel the listing at no cost whenever the seller wishes to do so. Florida may be different.