A few years back, people thought that selling a property will only be possible without a real
estate agent whose commission ranges from 6% to 7%. This commission is for listing a
property in the MLS (or multiple listing services). But this belief has already changed these
days because of the Internet. Home sellers today already have a choice whether to get a
real estate agent, sell their property on their own, or get a flat fee listing service.

When you get real estate agents to sell your home, you will be required to pay 6%
commission. 3% will go to the agent who is responsible in listing your home in the MLS
while the other half will go to the agent who is tasked to find a buyer and sell your home.
In this instance, you will be paying 2 agents.

On the other hand, if you prefer availing of a flat fee listing service, you will only be paying
a single agent. You will only have to pay the agent who will have your property listed in the
MLS. Given this, you’ll get to save a big amount of money.

If you want to have much bigger savings, you may opt for FSBO or For Sale by Owner. This
option will save you from paying a commission to a real estate agent, and this can really
mean an enormous cut on your expenses.

Actual Savings

For you to better understand how much you can really save from the different options, let
me give you concrete examples. For instance, you are selling your home for $300,000. If
you choose to sell your property in a traditional way, you will have to pay $18,000 all in all.
$9,000 shall be given to the listing agent and another $9,000 is for the selling agent.

As for the flat fee listing service, the commission that you’ll be paying will only be 3% that
amounts to $9,000. This time, only a listing agent shall be paid. This means that you will
be saving $9,000, which is a significant amount of money.

Lastly, when you choose FSBO, you will be saving a whopping $18,000 since you will not be
paying any real estate agents.

Getting a real estate agent is not the only choice you’ve got if you want to sell your home.
If you do not want to pay big commissions of agents, you may opt for the flat fee listing
service or FSBO.