Flat Fee MLS for Disposition
If you’re not familiar with flat fee MLS, usually for somewhere between $150 and $300, you can find a flat fee MLS company who will put your property up on the MLS. You’ll get a lot more eyes on it and more interest if you have it priced right. It’s an excellent method for dispo.
What you have to do for the contract is put in a clause that says you have the right to market prior to closing—you have the right to put the property on the MLS—and communicate that with the seller.
“Hey, we’ll put this up on the MLS and get you a buyer quick. We’ll also reach out to our buyer pool. What’s different between us and a real estate agent? Well, we’re not going to lock you up for six months. We’re not going to make you do any repairs. We’re going to handle any repairs and negotiations and dealing with buyers and all that stuff. So it’s an as-is sale. It’s a quicker sale, and we’ll handle everything for you.”
You may need a POA (power of attorney) in some states.
In some states require the MLS to have a power of attorney from the seller in order to put it up. In North Carolina, that’s not required, as long as it’s spelled out in the contract. You’re covered. We’ve learned that in Ohio, you have to have a POA, so check your state regulations.
What’s the process like?
I’ve used four or five of these flat-fee MLS companies now. Normally, you will go on to their site and pay a fee, and then they will send you a link to fill everything out.
You’ll need to set aside an hour or so to fill everything out that needs to be filled out. Those MLS forms are long, and there are a lot of required fields.
You’ll need to upload photos as part of this process. If you want to do the cheap and dirty way, you can take some screenshots off of Zillow, or Google Maps street view. What we do hire a boots-on-the-ground person to take photos.
Once everything has been submitted and approved by the broker, your listing will be live on the MLS. That’s usually within 24 hours.
The listing broker will then forward any interested realtors or investors to you. And you’re off to the races!
Working with real estate agents
This is probably a separate post unto itself. The main thing is to figure out whether a real estate agent has any experience with wholesaling. If they do, then you’re just discussing the process and getting the deal done. If they don’t, you need to educate them about how the process will work.
I recommend telling them that you plan to use your contract and your closing attorney. Some realtors will push back on this, or their broker will not let them use anything but the real estate commission’s contract. There is an assignment clause in most real estate commission contracts, or you can do an addendum.
I recommend trying to control the deal if you can using your contract and your attorney.
Conclusion
if you have been having trouble getting eyes on your properties, Flat Fee MLS may be a great route for you to get things sold!
If you like this post, you might also like this one: Wholetail- A Way To Make More money off your leads!
I have more real estate investing content on my podcast, Cool Wholesaling, and Land Deals- Real Talk on Real Estate Investing on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts
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