Over $2 Billion In Real Estate Sold/Leased
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. 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. 2-48 hours 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 solicit 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 2.5% 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 and Zillow? 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. That being said, these websites often sell zip codes to buyers agents from other companies, in which cases the buyer agent contact information would appear.
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 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.
When we last researched the success rate of our sellers in December of 2015, our sellers had a success rate of 75%, compared to an industry average of 81% in the same markets.
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? Submit the listing change form under the "my account" section.
18. How do I return the papers to you? Using Internet Explorer with the Adobe Reader plugin on a PC, you will be able to electronically sign and submit the documents. Otherwise, please complete offline, and either e-sign with DocuSign or Adobe Reader. All other signatures need to be traditional with a pen. If not submitted on our website, fax, mail, or scan/email the forms back to our Pennsylvania 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. There is a known issue of Comcast email addresses not receiving our emails, therefore please do not use a Comcast email address with our service. 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.
22. Why must the buyer's broker submit a W-9? The buyer's broker needs to submit their firm's W-9 to our office sometime prior to closing, so that their commission can be reported to the IRS for tax purposes.
23. Why do you direct agents to submit offers at www.2offer.us? State regulators require that listing brokers present all offers, even for listing concepts such as ours. This site provides an automated way for both you as the seller and us as the broker to immediately receive a copy of the offer. This avoids delays which would be required for manual processing on offers faxed or emailed to us.
................More answers to come as future questions arise.