Frequent Questions and Answers
1. How long will it take before my home appears in the Multi List? The same or next business day that you return the forms package to us. Our office is open a full day on Saturday, and open for limited functions on Sunday. Note: Listings in MLS areas where the MLS office enters the listing should allow 1 to 2 extra days for activation. Our website will identify if your MLS is in one of these extra time areas.
2. How will I know when it is there? We'll e-mail you the Multi-List sheet. A few days later, you can also view the listing on Realtor.com
3. What happens after the contract expires? Listings may be extended beyond the 6 months for a reduced fee.
4. How much total commission will I owe if another broker sells it? You choose (between 1% to 4%)
5. How much total commission will I owe if I sell it? None! _____Note: Atlanta Metro area, Georgia, would owe a 0.12% (.0012) fee at settlement for FMLS.
6. What if we later decide we want seller representation? No problem, just cancel your listing with us first. In certain areas Housepad also offers full service programs if you want to stay with us.
7. What if we want to pull our home off the market? Even during the contract period, this is no problem. After all, it is your house! Simply send us a written cancellation request with all owner's signatures, and it will be our pleasure to carry out your wishes. You may not cancel a listing for purposes of avoiding paying an agent an earned commission. Note: A cancellation fee applies in Georgia.
8. Will other REALTORS want to show my house with it being in this program? Other REALTORS will be happy to show your house if you are offering a competitive commission and listing price is competitive. Make sure your asking price is in line. Otherwise this will dramatically reduce the number of showings.
From time to time, agents will unethically attempt to silicate your listing by saying they don't show FSBO MLS listings. We have found this to be all talk, because 1) agent's for years have been showing FSBO listings before sellers even had MLS options, and 2) many agent's who say this, at the same time advertise our listings on their website MLS search. If they are willing to advertise your listing, they are most certainly willing to sell and get a commission on it. We have also noticed many of the sales coming from the big brokerage companies and franchises.
9. What commission rate to you recommend? Housepad recommends offering a 3% commission for properties over $100,000. The more or less you offer, the more or less incentive agents have to show your home.
10. Why is your price so low? In most areas, we do not need to pay an affiliate broker to put you in the MLS, because we are members ourselves. This prevents you from essentially paying twice! Secondly, we are one of the largest flat fee brokers in the country, and so we can work off a lower profit margin.
11. In plain English what do "seller's agent" and "transaction licensee" mean? A "seller's agent" represents the seller's interests. A"transaction licensee" does not represent the seller or the buyer.
12. Can this work in conjunction with an auction? Yes, provided that you follow the MLS rules and do the following. 1) The list price must not be lower than your reserve price. 2) You must clearly in the remarks fully list the date bids are do by and any conditions. 3) The list price must include the commission that you are offering. 4) The REALTOR procuring cause rules and our listing contract prevail over any auctioneer's conditions for whether a commission is owed to the broker for the buyer..
13. Is this the same Multi List that REALTORS use? Yes it is, and your listing goes into the same system.
14. Whose phone number shows up on Realtor.com? Realtor.com always requires that the Broker's phone number be with their respective listing. Under the standard package our phone system plays your phone number for callers. For an optional fee, our phone system can automatically forward calls to your phone number.
15. What is the success rate? First, here is how we calculate it. We do not include sellers who cancel prior to 6 months for 2 reasons. One is that it is to hard to calculate because many early cancellations end up relisting with us later. Secondly, it is necessary to make our success rate a more equal comparison to traditional listing contracts that typically do not allow early cancellation and tend to last 6 months. The success rate of our sellers has historically been a few percentage points above the REALTOR average.
This first calculation was done on 8/4/07. The success rate was 71.17%. Only counting the sellers that offered a 3% commission, the success rate jumped to 85.56%. During the same data period as the study, the success rate of all the other brokers was 81.53% (settled versus expired listings).
The second calculation was done on 12/17/10, searching data within the past 12 months. In harder market conditions, the success rate of those offering 2.5% or 3.0% commission fell to 54.3% in our largest MLS market (MRIS), which was 3.4 percentage points higher than then rest of the REALTORS' listings in that same multiple listing service, who saw only 50.9% of their listings sell. In that same study we calculated the nationwide success rate of HOUSEPAD sellers per the commission rate offered. The results were as follows:
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3.0%
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50.7%
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2.5%
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57.5%
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2.0%
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46.6%
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1.5%
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42.9%
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1.0%
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26.2%
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This chart does not include listings in the Denver or Long Island market areas, where the HOUSEPAD recommended commission is 2.8% and 2.0%, respectively. The unexpected peculiarity here was that sellers who offered 2.5% were marginally more successful than sellers who offered 3.0%. While this is a nationwide generalization, it may suggest that buyer's agents are increasingly accepting 2.5%, therefore those sellers have an extra 1/2% to make the deal.
16. Why do some not sell? The top 4 deal-killers (usually in this order): 1) The asking price is too high, 2) The offered commission is too low, 3) Not making themselves or their property easily accessible to agents, and/or 4) an unaddressed material defect on the property.
17. How do I change my listing's price? Mail or fax us a letter stating the new price with the signature of all owners of record. There is no charge for this.
18. How do I return the papers to you? Please fax, mail, or scan/email the forms back to our PA office.
19. What are the market conditions in my area? Click here for free current market research in the top metro markets around the country.
20. Why am I not receiving your emails? You probably have email settings that are causing our emails to go to your junk or bulk folders. Our customers with Yahoo and AOL have reported this problem the most. When you place an order you'll get our email address. Be sure to add our email to your address book to ensure that you receive our communications.
21. I have some legal questions. Do you have any references? We recommend the site FreeAdvice.com for starters, as it contains the most extensive collection of free legal advice that we have seen, as well as links to attorneys. Please note that we are not attorneys nor affiliated with this website. We offer or take no responsibility for its content.
................More answers to come as future questions arise.