Should I list my Sarasota home using flat fee MLS and offer a 5% buyer's agent commission or pay 6% full service?

Should I list my Sarasota home using flat fee MLS and offer a 5% buyer's agent commission or pay 6% full service?

The answer is apparent after you explore whether you are priced right. In today's crazy housing market, sellers must price their homes where buyers and Realtors will see the Sarasota home as a value. Then, set the buyer's agent commission where Realtors® will not possibly pass over your home when they are out showing property.

Please read my prior blog about "How to price a home yourself in today's crazy Florida markets of Orlando, Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville  which discusses how to price your home. Now I wish to specifically explore the concept of offering a 5% buyer's agent commission (all going to the agent representing the buyer) as opposed to listing full service and paying 6% or 7%.

In a full service listing, the listing agent typically splits the total commission charged to the seller with any agent that successfully negotiates a deal also called the co-brokerage commission. In a flat fee MLS listing there is no listing agent so there technically is no co-brokerage because there is nothing to "share." Therefore, in the flat rate MLS industry, there is only one commission offered and it is offered solely to "buyers' agents."

Now, let's compare what that buyer's agent receives in a full service 6% listing v. a 5% flat fee MLS listing. In a 6% full service listing, if a buyer's agent is involved, he/she will typically receive 3% or half of the 6%. In a flat fee MLS listing, if the seller is to offer a 5% buyer's agent commission, than that entire 5% goes to the buyer's agent.

I am the broker for ADDvantage®, a Tampa based flat fee MLS service, and from the birth of our company we have offered a program called Street Smart ADDvantage® that specializes in offering higher than "normal" buyer's agent commissions. Street Smart ADDvantage® promotes its "high commission listings" through a bi-weekly Eblast, reaching Realtors® throughout Florida for 2½ years. They read the email because it contains multiple properties-all offering 4% or greater buyer agent commissions. Our Street Smart ADDvantage® listed properties have proven to be more successful at selling than those listings offering 3% or less. Why?  Because Realtors® show Street Smart ADDvantage® listings more frequently and the marketing is more direct. Yes, commissions are published in the Sarasota MLS, but marketing is marketing and the more marketing one does, the more showings one gets.

It goes without saying that a buyer's agent would prefer receiving 4% or 5% on a Street Smart ADDvantage® listed property v. receiving 2.5% or 3% on a full-service listed property.  Money motivates all sales people and Realtors® are no exception.