Flat-fee MLS - History

History

Traditionally real estate brokerage services in the United States have been delivered as part of a bundled package including such services as (i) assisting the seller in setting a list price for the property; (ii) marketing and advertising a property for sale, including listing the property in the MLS; (iii) handling buyer inquiries and scheduling and arranging showings of the property to prospective home buyers; (iv) holding "Open Houses" to allow the public to preview a property for sale; (v) handling contract preparation and negotiation on behalf of the seller; (vi) management of the real estate transaction to final settlement (or closing escrow). The fee structure for this bundled package of services in the United States and Canada has generally been to pay a commission on the gross sales price of the property of between 5-7%.

Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt report that this typical large commission does not even benefit the average real estate broker as much as one might expect from the recent run up in housing prices because of the excessively large amount of time that the average real estate broker must spend trolling for new clients, and the relatively small percentage of their time they spend actually performing real estate services for each client.

However, the fixed fee concept existed for many years before the internet became popular. There are also fixed fee broker groups that cooperate with each other across the United States. Many FSBO websites will also locate local flat fee brokers for interested sellers. Those offerings normally include a FSBO webpage to assist in advertising the property.

In recent years, with the unbundling of services accelerated by the advent of the Internet, a number of brokerage models have developed to cater to the FSBO market by providing services on an "a la carte" basis. The widespread availability of information about properties for sale has caused downward pressure on real estate fees in the United States. For changes in the industry also read real estate trends.

A useful overview of real-estate payment practices in the United States is found in an October 2006 report by the AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. The study notes that "real estate broker commissions are strangely unrelated to either the quantity or quality of the service rendered or even to the value provided." It further concludes that "consumers would benefit most from a fee-for-service approach – combining flat fees, hourly fees, and bonuses, including percentages of extra value created." It offers a number of examples of such options.