Advise needed (Tried FSBO/Flat Fee MLS)

[N Singh]

Hello all, 

I own a condo and I made the mistake of trying go the FSBO route to save some $. This was going to be my first FSBO attempt as the market is good/ok, my listing was going to be priced at market value and usually the condos there are selling in 2-3 days of being listed.

I bought a Flat Fee MLS service to list my condo for sale ($95). I was informed that they will list the condo under a real estate company with a split of 2.5% (buyers agent) - .5% (sellers agent = this company) commission so I will save 3%. And any communication that the buyer needs to do will the sellers agent/seller would be via email.

 It got listed a week ago and I got about 11 showings with no offers yet. Which is very strange as other condos in the same residential complex got sold, even the ones that got listed after my listing and priced more than my listing.

I finally gave up trying to save some money and reached out to a realtor (with traditional fees) and he informed me that I need to cancel the contract with the Flat fee service first. So I called the company and they won't cancel the contract unless I pay them the 0.5% which we have in the contract. I tried reasoning with them but they threatened to sue me. So my option right now is just to pay that 0.5% and list it with another realtor.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what else I can do?