Walpole Massachusetts, located just 13 miles southwest of downtown Boston, is experiencing growth in home sales. Walpole property values have increased 7% in just the past year alone.

Today, owners who are seriously considering selling their own home are investigating ways to increase their profit and reduce time on market.

In Walpole, recent sales trends of single family homes indicate that it’s a great time for sellers to list their home for sale. It’s taking less time to sell than previous years. In August and September 2014, Walpole single family homes on average spent approximately 58 days on the market before selling, whereas during the same time period last year, it took on average approximately 63 days.  Walpole homes are selling faster in 2014 than they were in 2013.

Walpole Entry Only MLS Listings

Four of the current 86 Walpole single family homes listed for sale are entry only MLS listings, otherwise known as flat fee MLS listings. Entry only MLS listings give a seller control of their real estate transaction, from price to commission, while at the very same time giving their property much needed exposure via the multiple listing service (MLS).

Quite simply, if your home is not listed on the MLS, then you’re missing nearly the entire market.  Real estate agents and homebuyers alike begin their search on both the MLS and real estate websites across the Internet.  Those popular real estate websites are largely powered by data from MLS.

The MLS is an exclusive online database, inherently controlled by licensed Realtors, and it wasn’t long ago when the MLS and the entire real estate market did not do a great job of accommodating sellers who wanted to sell their own home as a for sale by owner or FSBO. Historically, without access to the MLS, FSBOs couldn’t garner the necessary exposure in the market homes need to solicit offers.

For a Walpole, MA home seller, selling a home FSBO without having it listed on the MLS is much like throwing a party, yet not sending invitations. The MLS is the ultimate source for the most popular real estate websites such as Realtor.com, Homes.com, Zillow, and Trulia.

Since nearly 100% of buyers search the Internet when looking for a home, you can see why exposure on the MLS is important.

List FSBO on the MLS in Walpole Massachusetts

Currently, there are 86 single family homes listed on the MLS for sale in Walpole.

Our example $520,000 custom built saltbox, in a popular neighborhood, will see its owner pay $26,000 in real estate agent commission if a Realtor charges 5%, an amount that would be divided between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent. That commission money comes directly out of the seller’s equity, or basically, his or her own pocket.

Now imagine this same Walpole single family home is listed on the MLS FSBO with Entry Only New England, a Massachusetts flat fee MLS realty provider. A seller would save $12,705 in real estate agent commission, only having to pay a buyer’s agent commission if a buyer’s agent brought a buyer to the table (if the seller finds their own buyer, unrepresented by a buyer’s agent, the seller pays no real estate commission whatsoever!).

For homeowners, the savings in commission is too big to ignore, and coupled with the growing strength of the real estate market in Massachusetts, that’s why flat fee MLS listings have been growing in popularity.

Savings in real estate agent commission can be used towards the down payment of another home, 529 college tuition plans, or even retirement.

The FSBO enabled MLS allows for sale by owners to keep the majority of a home’s profit from sale while garnering the same MLS and web exposure as if hiring a Realtor to list at full commission. It’s easy to see why flat fee MLS services are gaining in popularity with more than 550 entry only MLS listings across Massachusetts having already sold in 2014 alone.

Walpole Flat Fee MLS Realty Service

Flat fee MLS services were developed because the real estate industry is changing.

Imagine the era of air travel when only transacted through a travel agent who invariably takes a cut of the deal, and for many, unnecessarily bloats the cost of flying.

Today, with online “travel agencies”, millions of passengers each year book their tickets saving themselves hundreds of dollars.

Much like these services, consumers want the control to sell their most valuable asset, their home, on their own without a Realtor and having to hand over a traditional five or six percent commission to a real estate agent whose role has no doubt changed and shifted given technology.

Technology has fundamentally changed the value of a traditional real estate broker. While the MLS itself has not become any less powerful, if anything, it’s continued to grow in importance, it’s the access to the MLS by FSBOs as well as technology advancements that have democratized real estate transactions in general.

In Walpole today, sellers are optimistic about 2014 home sales, and continued growth into 2015. With excellent schools, low crime and an unemployment rate lower than the national average, home values are up 7% year to year.

If you’re considering selling your home, it will be well worth your time to learn more about flat fee MLS real estate and what it can do for your bottom line. Sellers are asking themselves why they should give away thousands of dollars in real estate agent commission now that the future of real estate has arrived.