How to List For Sale by Owner Weymouth MA

By all recent real estate news, the market is shifting and home sellers are seeing a slight boost in property values. This is true for Weymouth, Massachusetts as the average home price is currently $272,000, which represents an increase of $7,500 from one year ago. Currently Weymouth has 189 resale and new homes on the market for sale. From the end of October, over 43 homes have sold, and more are being listed each week despite the fact that the winter in New England is normally considered a slow time of the year in the real estate industry.

If you are contemplating selling your property in 2013, you may want to consider a flat fee MLS real estate approach over a traditional real estate listing agency as it would guarantee you thousands of dollars in saved real estate commission fees. For those interested in making more money in the New Year, this may be an excellent way to start.

For homeowners considering selling their Weymouth property, the local real estate market here has shown some very positive signs:

  1. The market is active
  2. The amount of time a home is on the market has decreased
  3. There is an increase in the median sales price
  4. Sales prices are getting closer to original asking price

After several years of dismal real estate news, this is welcome information.

Weymouth Massachusetts Realtor Fees

A flat fee MLS model of listing your home for sale is an increasingly popular alternative for those sellers who want to make the most from their home sale with a for sale by owner (FSBO) approach. Today, sellers are investigating how to gain even more profits from their property and a MA flat fee MLS listing provides the necessary MLS exposure without paying the hefty listing agent commission – the Realtor fees for just the listing agent in your real estate transaction could be as much as three percent of the price at which your property sells.

Massachusetts Realtor fees are dictated by the listing agent at the time you list your property for sale.  The listing agent negotiates with homeowners on the total real estate commission for the transaction.  That total is oftentimes then split in half between the listing agent and the real estate agent that brings the buyer to the transaction.  

By law, there are no “standard” Realtor fees, but anecdotally in Massachusetts, sellers can oftentimes see Realtor fees in the 5% to 6% range.

How to List Weymouth MA Homes For Sale by Owner

To get a feel for the difference between listing with a traditional real estate listing brokerage and that of a flat fee MLS model, take for example a home recently listed in Weymouth. The property sold in less than six weeks at its original asking price of $285,000. A standard six percent commission means $17,100 is taken out of the final price and split between the listing agent and the buyer’s agent as Realtor fees. For many sellers, paying such a high real estate commission is unrealistic, especially since the role of a real estate agent has changed in the past several years as the Internet has taken the lead in giving your property the visibility it needs. Taking out newspaper ads has lost significant amounts of exposure power, today, it’s all about the Internet.

In this day and age, selling a home is dependent on the exposure it creates. To get access to real estate agents and your target buyer, a home needs to be placed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), which is then syndicated to thousands of websites. Over 80 percent of buyers today begin their home search by looking online and the most high profile way to do this is to list your property on the official Massachusetts MLS. A seller cannot do this alone, only a licensed real estate agent or broker can place a property in the MLS – in order to list on the MLS by owner, a seller needs to work through a flat fee MLS service like EntryOnlyNewEngland.com. Once your home is on the MLS, it will also show on high traffic websites such as Realtor.com, MSN, AOL and Yahoo. With this broad exposure, your property is now available for real estate agents and buyers to view.

Weymouth Massachusetts Flat Fee Realty

Most homeowners have been affected by the decline in the real estate market in previous years. Now that the housing climate is moving forward and people are buying homes in increased numbers, chances are, if you have been thinking about selling your home, you want to make as much money as you can. Many homeowners simply cannot afford to list their home if a real estate agent applies Massachusetts Realtor fees of six percent. For example, the proceeds from a home sale may be needed to supplement retirement or a down payment on a new home. Whatever the reason, for many sellers, it’s simply not an option to pay a high real estate commission for a job many can do themselves. And who wants to pay any excess fees if it’s not necessary?

Weymouth Entry Only MLS Listings

Weymouth today has six homeowners that are selling their property through a Massachusetts flat fee MLS service. By taking advantage of the one time listing fee, their properties are receiving the same amount of exposure as the rest of homes being sold via traditional real estate methods. The difference? For Sale by Owners in Massachusetts get to keep the thousands of dollars they stand to save by listing their property with an entry only MLS listing.

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