At closing, Virginia sellers can expect to spend anything over $19,000 on commissions depending on the home’s sale price. This places you as the seller in a unique predicament. You want to sell your homes for a lucrative sum, but you also want to keep most of the profits from the seller’s trust and use that to bypass the exorbitant fees.
Do Flat Fee MLS Work?
Often real estate agents will explain that the cost you spend on commission is necessary if you want to sell your home at a better rate. They may show you data that supports this idea. However, when you examine data from FSBO sales, there’s one discrepancy. FSBO sales are treated as equal. But there’s a fundamental difference: sellers who choose to use a flat fee MLS and sellers who don’t.
With a flat fee MLS listing, Virginia sellers can expect to form part of the 94% of FSBO sellers who receive the asking price for their home. Whereas, those who choose to sell without assistance from a flat fee MLS will reach fewer buyers, reducing the possibility to sell at or above the asking price.
The Cost to Use a Flat Fee MLS Listing Virginia Homeowners Should Consider
To determine if it’s worthwhile to use a flat fee MLS listing, Virginia sellers should consider the cost and compare that to what they’d spend if they were to use a real estate agent.
Listing on an MLS
The primary cost will be the amount you spend to list on an MLS. In this instance, it will be the flat fee MLS service cost.
The two most used flat fee MLS in Virginia are FSBO.com and Houzeo.
FSBO.com charges Virginia sellers $399 to syndicate to local MLS. The service is solid but very outdated. Many significant features like offer and counteroffer forms don’t form part of the fee, and sellers can’t interact with buyers directly.
Houzeo.com hasn’t been operating for as long as FSBO.com but has garnered significant market share. The platform gives sellers access to most local MLS, free offer and counteroffer features, and live customer support.
Considering the best flat fee MLS listing Virginia sellers can access is Houzeo, the cost would be $329 to list the average home.
Professional Photographs
Whether you choose to use Houzeo or FSBO.com, you will need to spend money up-front on hiring a professional photographer to take pictures of your home.
This cost is well worth it since photographs are fundamental to attracting buyers. In Virginia, the cost to hire a professional real estate photographer is $200, and this usually includes editing.
Buyer’s agent commission
Then, the final cost is most crucial in attracting buyers. How much you choose to offer the buyer agent will determine how many buyers you attract. If you are going with the state average of 2.5%, this could cost you $8,491 for a $339,679 home.
However, Houzeo allows you to select the buyer agent commission that best suits your budget, strategy, or needs.
The total you’d spend using a flat fee MLS listing service is $9,020, compared to the $18,682 you’d spend going the traditional route. That’s a saving of $9,662. If you decide to use the best flat fee MLS Virginia sellers can access, you could make even greater savings while expediting the sale.