5 FSBO Flat Fee MLS Questions Answered

5 FSBO Flat Fee MLS Questions Answered 

Author: Rich Broker

If you are a first time user of a flat fee MLS, you certainly have questions in mind. You want to make sure that they are answered in order for you to know how the process works. Here are five of the questions you share with other first time users of the service.

Question # 1 – What are the steps to get listed in this type of MLS?



It all starts with purchasing a package then you will be contacted by the broker on how the paperwork should be done. Once you have completed the paperwork, you should send it back to the broker. You may also submit your photos for uploading to the site of realtors and in the MLS website itself.



Question # 2 – What are the main benefits obtained from a flat fee MLS?



Listing your FSBO property through this method will give you more exposure in the real estate market. It can also save you tons of money because you need not pay for commissions (although at some points you are required to pay 2% to 3% buyer agent's fee). You also save time marketing your property.



Question # 3 – Can changes be made on properties already listed via flat fee MLS?



If you think you need to change some information on your listed property, you may do so at any time.



Question # 4 – What else can be included in the package?



In order to increase your exposure, you are allowed to upload photos in the MLS site. In addition to this however, you may order a kit that contains internet listings and a yard kit. You also get to have your for sale by owner home listed for six months. All of these are offered for a price of $129 to $299.



Question # 5 – Where will the FSBO property be listed?



Your ad will actually be placed on almost all real property websites. Expect that there are around 36,000 realtors working for you. The flat fee MLS may also contain the national search engine marketing feature where your properties will reach any part of the country.



These are just some of the questions that you may want answered by the flat fee MLS provider. Once you choose one, make sure that you raise all your concerns prior to hitting the "buy" button from the company. You must know all requisites as well before getting listed.



Rich Broker

Article Source: http://www.a1articles.com/article_1355189_33.html

Cities with Top Foreclosure rates

According to Realty Trac, Las Vegas had the most foreclosures in 2009, which is five times the national average.  One of every eight Vegas households (12%) received notices of loan default, auction, or repossession in 2009.

While Nevada ranked number one - Missouri is ranked at number 30.  St. Louis foreclosure rates have been right along with the rest of the nation, with about 1,700 foreclosures in St. Louis city alone per month.

Most people don't realize that there is a redemption period in some states, that allow the person who lost their home to get it back after it has already been foreclosed on. Here is the rule for Missouri:

1. A notice of sale must be mailed the borrower, at his last known address, at least twenty (20) days prior to the scheduled day of sale. The notice of sale must also be published in a newspaper within the county.
2. The sale is conducted by the trustee at public auction for cash to the highest bidder. Anyone may bid, including the lender. If the lender is the winning bidder, the borrower has one year (12 months) to redeem the property.

  Kansas, for example, also allows the homeowner one year to get the property back, but does not have the "lender" clause.

A person wanting to bid on a foreclosed property needs to study carefully all the laws involved.

I NEED an Apple Ipad

I really NEED an Apple Ipad.

Just seeing it on the tv yesterday - and now I really want it - wouldn't it be great for realtors? Me in particular :)

9.7 display - 10 hr run time - portable

While showing houses you could easily run comps, look at other properties, pull up a sales contract and from what I understand you could sign contracts right on the screen. 

I had been dreaming about a Kindle - to read books - but this would be so much better - have you seen the way it looks like the page is turning when you turn the page?

How long before Windows has a version?

The email capabilities sound great too - and isn't the little keyboard so cute.

Anyone else out there like me.... watering at the mouth?

Maybe Apple will see this and donate one to me to review..........

The Short Sale Process

 What is a Short Sale?

A short sale is an arrangement between the current owner of a home and the bank to accept an offer for less than the total amount owed to pay off the home. The "deficiency" is the difference between the amount owed and what the bank collects at the short sale.


Different banks have different policies. The best case scenario is to get a bank that actually writes off the deficiency. All that happens here is that the seller has some minor derogatory credit reporting, but doesn't actually owe the bank any more money.

Some banks will do a promissory note for the deficiency. The owner will still owe this after the home is sold. NEVER EVER ASSUME THAT A DEBT THAT YOU OWE A LENDER IS GONE UNLESS YOU HAVE THE DETAILS OF THE RELEASE OF THAT DEBT IN WRITING

 Most banks will not agree to a short sale in writing until you have a formal offer - you will have to submit an application, hardship letter, financial statements, tax returns, pay stubs, the purchase agreement from the buyer, a HUD statement from the pending transaction, payoff letters from all lenders involved, and several other things depending on the lender.  Each bank is different in what they require.

A short sale is not a quick fix - it is a long drawn out process.

Always check with someone who has a lot of experience with short sales if you are selling your buying a home involved in a short sale

Martin Luther King, Jr. quote inspires excellance

I love this quote “If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” – Martin Luther King, Jr.  

This is my motto for doing any job - alot of people ask me how you can make money when you charge $195 for a flat fee MLS listing - the simple answer is "I do fine"  - the longer version is "I do more than is required, therefore I do fine".

Instead of having the attitude how little can I do - I like the attitude - "How well can I do and what more can I do".

Working with the title company when your sell or buy your home.

Working with the title company can be a really good experience or a really bad one.  I have been waiting for commission checks on homes we sold and I called the title company.   The one property they couriered the check yesterday - I was here all day yesterday and no check - I found out that they left it outside my old office - didn't bother to call and say "No one is there, should we leave it?"  The second property they closed on and did not issue us a check at all ..... and they will look into the third one.  Time to change title companies?

I also have another title company that is the worst when it comes to sending me the HUDS (the final closing statement) - I need these HUDS to mark the property as sold on the MLS.  The local MLS gives you 5 days to change status before they can start assessing fines.  I am just keeping my fingers crossed that they don't track me down because I have several properties from this one title company that is 2 months late!

I am happy to say that most of the transactions are smooth ones - but when they mess up it is sometimes a doozy - I have had clients walk out at closing because of the shoddy work of a title company.

Do you really own your home to get the 1st time homebuyer Tax Credit?

You might be surpised to learn that you might not - I received a call from a person today having trouble getting the first time homebuyer tax credit.  She got a trailer from a company that owns a Land Lease Community.  She was told that she was buying the trailer and leasing the land.

But as she read her paperwork to me, it became more and more obvious that she was leasing the trailer for 13 years at 14% interest, paying homeowner's insurance, taxes on the trailer and all maintenance.  At the end of the 13 years she could then purchase the trailer for $1. - but until then the deed is in the company name and she does not qualify for the first time homebuyer tax credit.  She does not in fact own the home!

All the paperwork has misleading jargon like "mortgage","mortgage interest", "mortgage principal" and loan.  When all the time it is a glorified lease purchase - but with the poor renter paying all the expenses.

A Land Lease Community is a  housing development in which homeowners lease the land under their homes from a landowner who often provides community infrastructure and amenities as well. The most common such communities are the modern equivalent of the mobile home park, in which owners of Manufactured Homes lease their Sites. Surveys indicate that more than one-third of manufactured homes are located in land lease communities.

Things you can get for a flat fee

I offer flat fee MLS listings - and was just curious about the other types of things you can get for a flat fee. So I did a google search and this is what i came up with :)

1 - flat fee mls - i like this one
2 - no nonsense divorce -for as little as $800
3 - tax resolution
4 - more mls
5 - graphic design
bookkeeping, loans, and the list goes on and on!

Wikipedia definition: A flat fee, also referred to as a flat rate or a linear rate, refers to a pricing structure that charges a single fixed fee for a service, regardless of usage. Rarely, it may refer to a rate that does not vary with usage or time of use. Another term used is "flate", a hybrid of "flat" and "rate".


The most surprising part for me was that by and large most of the postings were for mls listings.  I was more surprised to learn that the US Dept. of Justice Antitrust Division announced the launch of a new web site  to educate consumers and policymakers about the potential benefits that competition can bring to consumers of real estate brokerage services and the barriers that inhibit that competition.  Among other findings, they report that new sales models can reduce consumer home sales costs by thousands of dollars.   Here is the website Competition and Real Estate, includes a link to the real estate laws of each U.S. state and how they support or inhibit real estate brokerage competition.

FHA is raising fees and tightening lending standards

The Federal Housing Administration is raising fees and tightening lending standards.

The FHA insures approximately 30% of new loans and 50% of first-time buyers. They are so popular because the buyer only has to put 3.5% down and there are usually other programs to help with this amount. They do not make loans, but rather offers insurance against default.

The changes, which will go into effect in the first half of the year.

The new policies, to be announced today, the home buyers will:

■Pay an upfront mortgage insurance premium of 2.25 percent of the total loan amount (now it is 1.75) Borrowers will still be able to wrap these fees into the total amount borrowed. FHA officials also plan to ask Congress to increase the maximum annual premium that FHA can charge.

■Need a credit score of at least 580 to qualify. (now it is 500)

FHA also said that sellers would be able to pay closing costs of up to only 3 percent of a home's sales price, rather than the current 6 percent.

The increased upfront mortgage-insurance requirement will probably take effect in the spring. The new FICO score requirement and the change in seller-contributed closing costs will most likely take effect in early summer.

LIitle things sellers sometimes overlook

Here are some little things sellers sometimes overlook when preparing their home for sale:

- Replace burned out bulbs to avoid a "Light is inoperable" report that may suggest an electrical problem.

- Test smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, and replace dead batteries.

- Clean or replace dirty HVAC air filters. They should fit securely.

- Remove stored items, debris and wood from foundation. These may be cited as "conducive conditions" for carpenter ants.

- Remove items blocking access to HVAC equipment, electric service panels, water heaters, attics and crawl spaces.

- Trim tree limbs to 10' from the roof and shrubs from the house to allow access.

- Attend to broken or missing items like doorknobs, locks and latches; windowpanes, screens and locks; gutters, downspouts and chimney caps.

- look for dust bunnies or cobwebs in places that are higher and lower than your normal range of vision

HUD acts to speed foreclosed properties resales

Efective Feb 1, the Housing and Urban Development Department will waive for one year an FHA rule that prohibits insuring a mortgage on a home owned by the seller for less than 90 days, giving FHA borrowers access to a broader array of recently foreclosed properties.

The move is to allow homes to resell as quickly as possible, helping stabilize real estate prices and revitalize neighborhoods after the U.S. housing market collapse.

To protect FHA borrowers against predatory practices of "flipping" where properties are quickly resold at inflated prices to unsuspecting borrowers, this waiver is limited to those sales meeting the following general conditions:

• All transactions must be arms-length, with no identity of interest between the buyer and seller or other parties participating in the sales transaction.
• In cases in which the sales price of the property is 20 percent or more above the seller's acquisition cost, the waiver will only apply if the lender meets specific conditions.
• The waiver is limited to forward mortgages, and does not apply to the Home Equity Conversion Mortgage (HECM) for purchase program.

Specific conditions and other details of this new temporary policy are in the text of the waiver, available on HUD's website.

Do the new appraisal rules bring down housing value?

Do the new appraisal rules bring down value?

Starting Feb. 15, mortgage brokers will no longer be able to order appraisals on loans insured by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). For consumers, that is supposed to mean home appraisals will more closely reflect a home's value. The reason: Brokers who may profit from a loan being approved won't also be choosing appraisers, who may feel pressured to declare a higher value.

The rule means brokers, Realtors and loan-production staff — anyone who stands to earn a commission based on the value of the transaction — can't hire an appraiser. Instead, lenders are turning to third-party appraisal management companies that typically hire appraisers on contract to do the job.

These rules are designed to ensure appraisals are impartial — are resulting in excessively low home values, because chosen appraisers aren't as experienced or as familiar with local markets. They also say the appraisers take more time, causing delays in getting appraisals done.

What is Your home Worth?

While many factors come into play when you’re evaluating a residential property’s value by “comps” (comparable sales), the three key factors are location, size (square footage) of the home and the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. Obviously, you’ll need to look at many other aspects before you can pinpoint the exact value of a property, but these are the “big three.” You should be able to look at comparable sales involving properties with these three factors and get a good idea of the value of the property you’re selling.

Location is extremely important when you’re comparing sold properties. A professional appraiser typically looks at houses within a one-mile radius or less, and so should you. In the case of a subdivision -- where the houses are all similar and built in the same time period -- you need to compare similar houses with similar styles in the same subdivision to get an accurate valuation. If there’s a wide mix of properties in the subdivision, you may need to go outside of it to get comparable sales. Just be careful with “dividing lines.” Geographic lines such as opposite sides of the river, the park, or a main highway can be invisible dividing lines that put the property in another school district and may not garner equitable comps.

When determining a home’s value, be sure to evaluate the square footage. Note that appraisers typically look at homes that are within 20% up or down in square footage as comparables. Generally (especially within a subdivision), most homes fall within a fairly limited size range. Therefore, you should be able to develop a good gauge for the selling price of homes in those particular sizes.

Of course, not all square footage is created equal. Most people think that if a house has 1,000 square feet and is worth $100,000, then the 1,100 square-foot house next door would be worth $110,000. Wrong! The extra 10% in square footage equals only a few percentage points in value. If these two houses offer the same location, style, and number of bedrooms and baths, the 10% additional square footage won’t change the valuation much. Why? Because there is a fixed cost on a house based on the value of the land, cost of construction, sewer, subdivision plans and other factors. An extra few hundred feet of space involves very little cost -- only wood, nails, carpet and possibly some minor electrical and plumbing costs.

The number of bathrooms and bedrooms is more relevant than simply the raw square footage. In other words, a three-bedroom home with 1,200 square feet might be worth more than a two-bedroom home with 1,250 square feet. It also matters where the bedrooms and bathrooms are located – on the main floor or the basement. While finished basements can add value, the amount of that value is less than it is for above-ground living areas. Plus, this greatly varies depending on different regions of the country. In humid areas, below-ground living space isn’t as valuable to homeowners as in dryer areas of the country.

Why use a Flat Fee MLS Listing?

Why Should You Do A Flat Fee MLS Listing?

If you’re thinking of selling your house, have you considered going with a flat fee MLS listing?
Here are some facts to consider before signing a contract with a real estate agent that promises them a big commission for selling your house.
In most areas, about 3.5 % of the final sales price will go right into the listing agent’s pocket. That’s a huge chunk of money for, in far too many cases, not all that much work. With a flat fee MLS listing, you can save thousands of dollars.
It’s the listing that is really crucial in most cases. That’s what gets your house seen, and attracts interested buyers. It’s not your listing Realtor knocking themselves out to line up a buyer for your house. Most agents list as many houses as possible, and find themselves with far too many to effectively market. But they know that once a house is on the MLS, odds are good someone will see it and make an offer. So why pay thousands and get little in return? The listing is the key factor, and with a flat fee MLS listing you can get your house seen, and save thousands of dollars.

Life is About Change

Life is About Change - It is so easy to resist change, to get bogged down in the sadness of change - I did that yesterday.

Today is a new day - today i read some inspiring quotes:

Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965)

I especially like the part in "take delight in it while we have it" - you have to live in the present - i sometimes spend so much time worrying about tomorrow or regetting yesterday - i can't enjoy the NOW. Yesterday coming home with friends, I was so ready to be out of the car, to be alone, etc, etc. - and I purposely stopped looked out the window and enjoyed the view, the feel of the movement in the car - and it really helped - my mood changed instantly.

Another good quote is:

Change your thoughts and you change your world.

Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)

How true this is!

Change is all about perception. When it's hot we want cold - when it's cold we want hot.

Housing survey

There are no great surprises in the National Association of Realtors® 2009 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, but, as in the past, the annual survey contains information useful both for consumers and for brokers and agents.

In these days almost everyone uses the Internet during the home search process. 90% used the Internet at some point and 76% said they did so frequently. Just seven years ago only 41% of buyers indicated any Internet use at all.

Of course, people looking for a home use more than just one information source. The top five were: Internet (90%), real estate agent (87%), yard signs (59%), open houses (46%) and newspaper advertising (40%). While people used a variety of sources, they certainly didn't perceive them all to be equally useful. When asked which information sources were very useful, the top three were real estate agent (81%), Internet (77%) and yard signs (42%). Ten percent of buyers found open houses to be very useful sources of information while another 25% found them to be somewhat useful.

What agents and sellers should be most interested in is not what buyers perceived to be useful but what, in fact, actually brought the buyer to the home that he or she purchased. This is where it really gets interesting.

36% of buyers found the home that they ultimately purchased on the Internet; another 36% learned of that home from a real estate agent. Over the years, the number who learned from an agent has diminished. In 2001 it was 48%. Conversely, the number who learned of their home from the Internet has grown greatly. In 2001 that number was only 8%. Interestingly, those who found their home as a result of a sign has remained relatively steady. Over the past decade that number has pretty consistently been at the 15% -16% levels. This year it was 12%.

It is interesting that the methods that actually work – that bring the right home in front of buyers – are among the least expensive: the Internet, working with an agent (who learns about properties through the MLS), and signs. 84% of buyers learned about their home through one of these sources.

INTERESTING: some of the most expensive methods – newspapers, home books and magazines, and television – are among the least effective. Only 4% of buyers found their homes via these media.