Rob, very interesting.  What constitutes a "limited service listing" or could you define a "limited service listing?"

Generally speaking it is a listing where the listing agent does not perform the typical full services that most Realtors do (i.e. marketing, assistance with pricing and staging, negotiating, paperwork, transaction coordination, closing coordination, etc.).  Instead they input it in the MLS, provide a sign, and maybe a few other functions, and let the owner take care of everything else. 

Our MLS allows you to categorize a listing as Exclusive Right to Sell, Exclusive Agency, or Limited Service.  The big bulk of them are Exclusive Right to Sell listings.

We ares in the middle of the legislature trying to pass a bill requiring us to disclose what we will do for our fee. If nothing else we may be able to educate the public on the difference. I guess they think we all are the same and if they can get someone to do it for less they go for it. Thanks for the info.

Terry - Hopefully that bill won't pass.  We do not need to be over-regulated.  A little regulation is probably OK, but legislators tend to get carried away.

Very interesting indeed. I'm going to save those figures or run them myself.

They would be useful for listing presentations and to counteract what is generally said about limited services listings.

Thanks for posting the info!

Armando -

When I was doing the research, I was expecting to be able to post that there was only maybe a 5-10% better chance that the listing would sell using a full service Realtor so why spend the extra money.  I still do not understand why the numbers are showing that full service Realtors in Central Florida are selling a lower percentage than limited service.  That is why I said it is an "unscientific" analysis - there may be other factors that I am unaware of for why these numbers come out this way.

If you read the book Freakonomics, Chapter 2 is titled "How is the Ku Klux Klan Like a Group of Real-Estate Agents?"  That title is quite dramatic and a little insulting to real estate agents.  It discusses how both groups control numbers and statistics.  It states how an extra $10,000 in sales price = $10,000 in additional profit to an owner, but only an extra $150 in commission for the listing agent (10K * 6% then split 4 ways between 2 brokers and 2 agents).  I can't give a good explanation without rambling, but it is a very interesting read.

I just finally picked up Freakonomics myself yesterday - at the local library for free of course.  Interesting stuff.

I should think if you wanted to invest the time, you could get your arms around those figures more precisely.  In our Triangle MLS, for example, we're limited to 99 results - so sometimes it takes longer to get info processed. Of course, we also have a "Statistics" section which will break all this info down for us in larger group terms.

Bo - Freakonomics is quite an interesting book.  It covers a lot of interesting topics.

Hi Rob, did you take into consideration that there are probably a ton of pre-forclosure and reo properties in the full service catagory. Just a thought. I am not from the area and therefor do not know the numbers.

Sincerely,

Bill

Bill - My research was done back in December of last year.  It included all listings regardless of their foreclosure status.