Omaha, Nebraska Flat Fee MLS By Donald Plunkett At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

You have a million different choices when it comes to listing your home in Omaha. There are big name and boutique brokerages of all shapes and sizes: CBSHOME Real Estate, NP Dodge, Coldwell Banker, Remax, Prudential, Deeb Realty, Century 21, and many others. Some have just a few agents, some have hundreds, and others are even owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway! Regardless, they all seem to be offering the exact same thing: a traditional real estate listing charging some percentage commission at closing. While some will quote different prices for their services, few will offer a very small fee and no listing commission for the thing people want the most: a listing in the Multiple Listing Service (MLS). For most brokers, offering something like this would make no sense. After all, they have office rent, multiple real estate agents, brokers, advertising, and a multitude of other expenses to pay. For flat fee MLS companies, however, there is potential to offer this option to consumers, while still eking out a small profit.

The way a flat fee MLS listing works is both simple and powerful. The listing appears as any other Realtor® listing on the MLS. Buyers browsing affiliated websites can find the property; Realtors® searching the actual MLS database for their buyers can find the property as well. So first and foremost, people will be aware that your property is for sale. Secondly, Realtors® show properties for a living because they want to earn money. The MLS is not just a database of homes for sale; it is a promise of compensation between brokers. If a buyer’s broker brings a buyer that successfully closes escrow on the property, the buyer’s broker is granted a commission at closing. This number is determined at the time of listing the property. Frequently, 3% is offered, although there is no hard and fast rule that any particular percentage or dollar figure is offered. While sellers would like to avoid paying commissions altogether, this figure will be significantly below the total commission if both a listing agent and buyer’s agent had to be paid at closing. Because buyers’ agents continue to have the ability to earn a commission at closing, they will show the property. In fact, no buyer’s agent is fully aware of the amount that a listing broker is making on the listing side until closing.

As the largest city in Nebraska, Omaha’s real estate market is not only the most vibrant in the state, it also has the largest number of sellers that have successfully used the flat fee MLS listing to sell their homes. There is no doubt that this option will become increasingly popular not only in and around Omaha, but also Lincoln, Grand Island, Kearney, Hastings, and around the state. On a final note, some may wonder if Warren Buffett should be concerned that there may be less revenue available for his realty subsidiary with the advent of flat fee MLS programs; our research indicates that he is going to be just fine. When he realizes how popular these programs are, he may end up purchasing a flat fee MLS company!

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