Went with a flat fee MLS broker instead of a full service agent for my house sale

I listed my 3 bedroom ranch in the Steele Creek area back in March and had to decide between a traditional agent at 6% or one of those flat fee brokers for $500. I went with the flat fee option and handled the showings and negotiations myself. It was a lot of legwork on my end (I was cleaning houses during the day and showing mine at night) but I saved roughly $12,000 in commission. Has anyone else in Charlotte tried the flat fee route and regretted it or loved it?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_cora16d agoTop Commenter

Did you actually save $12,000 though or is that just the commission difference on paper? Because you spent a ton of your own time cleaning houses during the day and showing it at night, plus paying for photos and lock boxes and signs out of pocket. I bet that $500 flat fee broker still charged you extra for anything beyond just putting it in the MLS. And you handled negotiations yourself which means any mistake you made could have cost you way more than that $12k you think you saved.

parkerrodriguez16d ago

Did I actually save the $12k? Yeah I did, but it definitely wasn't the glamourous life hack some people make it sound like. My back still hurts from scrubbing baseboards at midnight before a showing. You're right about the flat fee broker too, they nickel and dimed me on stuff like adding extra photos and changing the listing status. The out of pocket costs ate up maybe $1500 of the savings, and I definitely made myself crazy with the negotiations. But honestly, my biggest mistake was almost accepting a lowball offer because I was so tired I just wanted to be done. So the $12k is real, but it came with a lot of sweat and a few panic attacks thrown in for free.