Do flat rate MLS listings take longer to sell?
Many property sellers who are contemplating listing their properties themselves wonder if their properties will take longer to sell than if they chose to sell their properties using the traditional Realtor method.
The time it takes to sell a property largely depends on the list price of the property. Second most important is the particular real estate agent (on traditional listings) or particular seller (on flat fee MLS listings) and how well they accommodate ALL showing requests. The third most important is how well the property is displayed and marketed, along with whether or not a full Buyer’s Agent commission is offered.
For properties sold in 2012, the average number of days it took to sell residential properties was:
Okanagan Mainline Real Estate Board: 132 days
Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board: 53
Our Flat Fee MLS Listing Company: 67
The Greater Vancouver Real Estate Board is the most popular real estate market in BC, so it would make sense that their days on market are much fewer than the Okanagan average number. Our listings tend to be heavier weighted with listings in the Lower Mainland area, but 36% of their listings in 2012 were from the Okanagan region. Having said that, it’s pretty clear that our flat rate MLS listings sell in about the same time frame as traditional listings.
The bottom line here is that the market in particular, the listing price of the property and being listed on the MLS® system is much more powerful than whether or not to use a real estate agent to sell a property vs. the seller. It is also important that flat rate MLS sellers offer a full buyer’s agent commission to maximize the cooperation of local real estate agents. It is estimated that the number of real estate agent introductions will be reduced by up to 90%, depending on how much the seller of the property reduces the offered buyer’s agent commission. Therefore, we always strongly recommend that in the Lower Mainland a buyer’s agent commission of 3.255% be offered on the first $100,000 and 1.1625% on the rest and in the rest of British Columbia that a buyer’s agent commission be offered 3.5% on the first $100,000 and 1.5% on the rest if offered.
We are a brokerage and member of the Canadian Real Estate Association. The company specializes in creating flat rate MLS listings and provides the support and guidance to sell property. We serve clients located in the province of British Columbia in Canada.