Flat Rate Realtors

When you are considering selling your home, you may contemplate several venues for exposure. The local newspaper, real estate books, and online are all possible places you may list your home. In this technological age, more and more are turning to the internet as an advertising venue. Why not? You gain maximum exposure this way. On the internet, one of the most popular ways of listing your home is to use what is called a MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

The Multiple Listing Service, or MLS, is a service that broadens the ability to sell a home. The idea of this service began in the late 1800s. Since then, it has evolved drastically. In the 1970s, the MLS was printed monthly with updates weekly. The bad part about this was that the book was rather large, heavy and unpractical to carry around. Now that the MLS is on the internet, it is much more practical and can be accessed from pretty much anywhere. Typically however, only real estate agents have access to promote these listings. For this reason, it is thought that you must hire a real estate agent and be subject to their commission fee which is usually a percentage off the sale of your home. This is not always true, at least now days. (more…)