Listwithfreedom.com helpful for non realtors MLS access?

Question

Hello!  I have heard about a company called listwithfreedon.com that allows people who are not realtors (ie for sale by owner individuals) to list their properties for sale on the MLS.  They charge, I believe, $300 to list a property for 6 months.  Has anyone used this service?  Were you able to easily communicate with buyers agents through the site?  Did the company help you with giving you the proper disclosures (lead based paint, etc ) for your state?  Did you sell? Any replies would be appreciated!

Doug Pretorius · Answer

@Tricia O'Brien There are thousands of flat fee listing services like that. The problem for sellers who use them is buyer's agents will steer their buyers away from those listings because they feel it's harder to close without a listing agent to work with. It's the same with being an FSBO even if you offer a commission to agents who bring a buyer most of them with avoid working with you.

I actually use these sites as one way to find motivated sellers because you can be pretty sure they aren't getting any offers. These sellers obviously are trying to maximize their profit on the sale which is something I can give them with a creative offer. I sweeten the deal by offering to pay all of their closing costs as well. Seller's LOVE the idea of getting top dollar as NET cash in their pocket!

Marcus Auerbach · Answer

You will find services like this all over the country (we have similar services in Milwaukee) and at first glace this is appealing, because it get's your listing on MLS and you don't have to pay commission, so that's great right?

Here is the catch:

- You still have to pay the buyer's agent. Every buyer in their right mind works with an agent, the ones who don't have one yet (or worse, the ones agents don't want to work with) are NOT the buyers you want! I have some great stories!

- Pricing a property correctly is a skill that is not easy to learn, most agents struggle with that. The wrong list price (usually too high) can cost you 50k. Because if it does not sell, you have to start chasing the market down, people start wonder what's wrong with your listing, are reluctant to offer, or eventually make a low ball offer

- Getting a property under contract is only half the job. Now you need to navigate inspection issues, appraisal issues, title issues - and you always have a trained professional on the other side!

- You also have to do the work, you'll be busy for at least 2 to 3 months. So aside from the skill and experience (which is where I would put most of the value of a great agent) you also have the hours you have to put in, 7 days a week, while you are at work, while you are at your sons birthday..

- Liability. More often than not there is a snag of some sort, if you don't know how to handle issues, you open yourself up to legal issues. Spoke with a seller last night who just spent 50k on attorney fees and ultimately settling, because of a disclosure issue, which could have easily be avoided. And she is on BP and been around the block more than once!

Can you sell a house this way? Yes. Can you achieve a similar result as a rookie agent? Potentially, sometimes, if you are lucky.  But there is a good chance you end up with less money and more trouble. Can you achieve the same results as a experienced agent? No, there are just too many opportunities for mistakes and they all stack up. If it were the better solution, Zillow would have made an app and agents would be a thing of the past.

I realize this is not what you wanted to hear and you may not have that many agents in Anchorage, but try to hire a pro!

Tricia O'Brien · Answer

Thanks for your reply about your experience @Jason V.

Did you consider listing it with a buyers agent before you listed it with listwithfreedom.com?  Were all the forms and disclosures basically the  same with listwithfreedom.com type company as with a sellers agent?

Did the listing company have people you could talk to with any questions about the forms?

My house is in California and the realtors give you about 30 pages to fill out if you want to list with them, and  some of the forms  are very confusing!

Jason V. · Answer

I used them and LOVED the service.  I *actually* purchased a 6 month, 25 picture package for $150 from a referral site.  And that referral site sent me a link to get the Platinum plan (honestly... I got the Platinum + no picture limit, which would've been the only reason for me to upgrade to the Platinum+ plan, so the referral site actually saved me $150 compared to what I actually got and $50 compared to what I originally paid for).Soo... anyway, the service was great.  LWF.com had all the LBP and other Disclosure forms for me to fill out.  All house info, details, etc. that the MLS required, presumably.... which I likely would've needed to find out most of that information for a Listing Broker/Agent, anyway.  I spent over a week cleaning the house because my tenant had done nothing, but I spent extra attention to the outside -- mowing, trimming trees / bushes, edging driveway / sidewalk, pressure washing driveway / doors / windows/ brick/ etc.  It looked great.  I took the photos within an hour of sunrise, which produces the best photos (or hour before sunrise, either one).  The pictures made the house look GREAT.  My description pushed unique features of the house.  I definitely put more work into the pictures and description that ANY Listing Agent would've done.The guy above is right, tho... coming up with a $$ amount to list at is difficult, especially now when the market is starting to drop pretty quick.  I honestly would've been happy with $89k after realtor commission, etc... but my wife said, if I list there everybody is going to underbid me, even if it was worth more.  Zillow said it was worth $120k.  Realtor.com/soldhomes said it was worth around $97k.  I decided to list @ $104,700 on Zillow & Trulia only to avoid realtor commission fees if possible.  After a few days of only getting a one-sided contract offer from a wholesaler, I decided to list on the MLS with the LWF.com referral company (was state specific, something like MississippiFlatFeeMLS.com or something like that.  Doesn't matter, really.  Just make sure it's cheaper than LWF.com itself).  Anyway... when I finally used LWF.com to get on the MLS, I changed the 4 & 7 in my listing price to adjust for 3% buyers agent fee, which is incredibly fair to me (broker will get 1.5%, agent will only get 1.5% him/herself).  Choose either 2.5% or 3% if you want the house to sell.  So, ultimately, I adjusted the new price to $107,400 to cover that 3% commission.Everything's looking great... got multiple calls, texts the first couple days.  Two guys and their agent look at the house within a day or two of listing.  I had a Schlage Connect deadbolt lock on the front door, so I just had to give any agent the pin code to let him in (plus inspectors, etc.).  First agent submitted an offer for $89k w/ commission fees (as that's the stipulation of listing on MLS is you're gonna pay for the buyer's broker/agent, also!)  I said no, but came down to $100k.  They said their best and final offer was $95k.  I told them no deal, but a few hours later I worked out a better way to phrase the deal.  I told the buyers that I would accept $94.5k (if the buyers paid for the 3% buyers agent commission!!).  I also threw in that I'd pay for the termite inspection, which they originally wanted.  So I gave them what they wanted -- termite inspection and I would even accept BELOW their offer amount of $95k, so long as THEY paid their agent's 3% commission.That meant that the new offer was actually $97.5k, minus 3% buyers agent commission & termite inspection.  So the deal ended up being right between where we were both at 95 & 100.  Make sense, right?  I was trying to seal the deal, because this was a CASH buyer.  This was great for me, as my home needed a lot of small, cosmetic fixes.  And I didn't realize this at the time, but any house BUILT before 1978 has to have nearly perfect paint.  Their can't be chips, flakes, etc.... otherwise FHA and VA loans are going to run into issues, even if you replaced all the drywall, paint, etc... there's still a fear that there could be LBP on the walls.  So cash was great for this reason, I didn't need to paint, which I had no interest in doing.  I sold the cheap price in need of paint as a BENEFIT to buying my house.  The buyers could CHOOSE their own cholor scheme, right?  ;-)And another benefit of the CASH deal is that the *only* two contingencies that existed were structural, foundational, electrical, plumbing, HVAC, or other systemic (i.e. - NON-cosmetic) inspection issues.  I already knew the electrical, HVAC, roof, etc. were replaced... so I knew this deal was as good as gold.  I was unsure of the termite inspection, as there was some formerly wet wood that I only discoverafter installing the new roof... but even if there were termites, I knew it'd only be localized.  Thankfully, the Wood Destroying Inspect Report showed no termites or termite damage.  Great.  Their inspection came back, and they tried to get me to pay for A LOT of cosmetic issues that I already disclosed to them.  There were 3 issues identified that were "non-cosmetic" -- 1 screw in the electrical panel was a pointed machine screw instead of a squared off screw, 1 exterior light was pulled out a hole, so I offered to caulk it, and the biggest issue, which I didn't expect, was the inspector showing that the blown-in cellulose insulatoin was of an "insufficient quantity", so for $15 a bag, I offered them $200 for all that stuff... or I told them I'd do it myself.  I knew good and well they'd take the $200... because they'd rather use that to buy paint and aren't truly worried about the insulation.  But since insulation is non-cosmetic, I needed to address the issue to keep my end of the inspection contingency bargain.So.... after they accepted the $200, there was NO reason they could get out of purchasing the house.  We ended up getting about  16 hours away from closing, I ask the buyer's agent when they wanted me to shut the utilities off.  The buyer's agent replies that they don't want to buy the house anymore but I'd get the earnest money of only $1k.  I was pissed!  I sent him about 3 or 4 texts, making it very clear that this contract is a done deal and the earnest money doesn't excuse them from their obligation to purchase the house.  Made it even more clear that I'd sue them, and as their own contract stated, the non-prevailing party would have to pay legal fees of the prevailing party.  Well, needless to say, the agent informed me an hour or so later that the buyer was going ahead with the closing now.  Good choice, buyer!!  And even tho I didn't get an answer from the buyer, I ended up leaving the utilities on till the day after closing, as they wanted to do their final walk thru at the last minute on Friday.... and THAT final walk thru is the only way they could've found to weasel out of the contract.There's a ton of work involved, but in order to save me almost $3k on the deal and have everything run as quickly, smoothly as possible... listing on LWF.com (or their referral, whatever) was the best possible option for my situation.  Definitely recommend, but you definitely need to READ *ALL* CONTRACTS before signing them... plus have a good idea of how to negotiate.  Knowing how to price your home is the hardest bit, IMHO.  But I know that the curb appeal for my house was greater than other houses around me.  I got $10k or $15k more than the listing price of other homes in the neighborhood.  Could be why they wanted to back out?  But I wasn't putting up with it.  I accepted the cash offer for a reason and couldn't be happier.  I'm definitely afraid of the market dropping significantly more, but it will likely stay more flat than anything.  Was just happier with the cash now for my specific situation, tho.Anway, good luck with your listing!  My MLS link was just removed due to being SOLD, but here's the zillow link to check out my pictures, which it was either those and/or my description that sold the house as quickly as it did...https://www.zillow.com/homedet...

Listwithfreedom.com helpful for non realtors MLS access?

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