Why the MLS?
The MLS offers the absolute maximum exposure that a home seller can achieve. No other method of selling a home has been as successful. Your property and all of its features will be available to every Realtor in the area, as well as to their buyers. You immediately have a team of thousands to help sell your home, If you are serious about selling your home quickly and for top dollar, it is in your best interest to take advantage of the power of the MLS.
Will my listing be available to other local Real Estate Companies as well?
Yes! Broker networking, or IDX, provides Broker’s the opportunity to share their listings on each other’s respective web sites. This sharing allows a potential buyer working with another real estate company who does a search matching your criteria to view your listing. Coldwell Banker, Re-Max, Prominent Properties, ERA, Century 21 are just a few. Is it true that Realtors using the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) sell most houses and that they usually sell for a higher price? Yes! According to the National Association of Realtors, approximately 80% of all U.S. homes are sold through Realtors using the MLS and homes listed on the MLS average net proceeds of 7% higher than homes sold for sale by owner! It is a wise decision to include your property on MLS. The MLS will give you maximum exposure and this is the key to a successful transaction. There is no other more effective way to sell your property.
What is the law regarding commissions?
Fees and commissions are established by each brokerage individually and negotiated freely with clients and customers, and each brokerage adopts and establishes its own business practices to best serve its goals and preferences.
Are you a Discount Broker? 
HaydenOakley,Realtors, simply put, is the future of real estate. The concept is simple. We eliminate the cost of overhead associated with traditional offices by providing a virtual technologically advanced brokerage office. We provide a cost-effective, streamlined, modern way to sell real estate. Our knowledge and foresight is your money in the bank.
IDX gives brokers and real estate agents the ability to display MLS listings on to their company and individual real estate websites. The upshot for home sellers is that when a property is listed in the MLS with one broker, it now becomes available to customers through every cooperating Realtor website including Realtor.com and websites that display property search results from Realtor.com like Yahoo.com, MSN.com and others. In fact your local, in town independent brokerage firms as well as all franchise firms websites will normally all display the same listings from the IDX program.
Do I Have To Pay A Co-Broke Fee? A portion of the money you pay in commissions to a real estate company is for the selling agent, the agent who brings the buyers. While in a perfect world, the buyer would pay their agent, present protocol has the buyer's agent fee being paid by the seller. What you pay out or split with the selling agent can sometimes have a dramatic impact on the number of showings and offers you receive on your property.The fees that we quote here are our listing fees and do not include any co-broke, the amount of which is solely at your discretion.
Will buyer agents show my home if they make less than 2.5%?
Some agents competing with HaydenOakley for your business utilize scare tactics to convince you that buyer agents will not show your home if you don’t pay a 2.5% or 3% commission to the buyer agent. This argument is solely designed to get you to pay their firm more money? Ask any agent how many times he or she has sold homes with lower commissions? The fact of the mater is that thousands of homes are successfully sold paying buyer agents 2 percent or less in our markets. When it comes to steering buyers, the vast majority of agents are honest good people. They know that arranging showings by amount of commission earned is a violation of the Code of Ethics of the National Association of Realtors and immoral behavior at best. Most agents are representing family, friends, or repeat/referral customers. With such customers there is really no personal incentive to steer their buyer to the highest commission because the agent really cares about their client. These buyer agents also know that buyers are out actively searching for homes and don’t care if their agent earns more commission. Like every business, a small minority of agents probably do show homes in order of commissions paid. But honestly, missing two or three possible buyers out of a hundred won't stop us from successfully marketing your home. If you desire to offer more commission to a buyer agent we still want your business, and you are welcome to offer the buyer agent the commission you chose. Don't be fooled by self-serving fear tactics and get the facts for yourself. Will I receive a higher price if I pay more money to a buyer agent? No. The pressure to pay higher fees to buyer agents benefits the real estate community, not homeowners. In fact, paying excessive fees to a buyer agent sets the tone that the homeowner is in a weak negotiating position because they are offering more than normal. Accurately priced and maximum exposure homes don’t need to offer excessive fees. Commissions to Realtors do not increase the price achieved or speed in which your property sells. It is the properties condition, price, and exposure, which determine value, not the commission.
What influence do real estate agents have over the market? The answer is very little. Below you will find listed the major items that influence your home sale and who controls the item. Price: The buyers dictate home values. A homeowner can set any price they choose, but the home is not sold until a willing and able buyer agrees to a certain price and completes the transaction. Factors influencing buyer’s ability to pay top dollar for a home include: interest rates, personal income growth, tax laws, consumer confidence, etc. The seller and the real estate agent have no control over these underlying economic issues. The real estate agent must be able to help the homeowner set a reasonable expectation of asking price or risk having the home be ignored by the market. In addition, if the appraiser does not agree with the price, you will risk having the transaction cancelled when the buyer cannot get his loan approved.
Location: Your property's location is not subject to change.
Condition: The condition of your property will have a huge impact on your ability to sell your home. This is under the home seller's direct control.
Ease of Showing: The ability for buyers to access your home is critical to building a sense of competition between buyers early in the listing period. If the home is difficult to show (no lockbox, large dogs, etc.) you will be limiting your ability to attract buyers. Again, this is under the home seller's control.
Exposure: Like any product for sale in this country, the more exposure your home receives, the larger pool of buyers will be reached. Obviously, when a home reaches a great number of prospective buyers, competition for the home intensifies and the home will sell at its highest potential value. This is the only area under the direct control of the real estate agent because you don't have access to the MLS...if you did...you would list it yourself.
What is fee for service or a la carte services? To be contrasted with full service. Fee for service is where the full service package is separated into any number of component parts and combinations. In this arrangement, different services cost different fees.This arrangement is suited for For Sale by Owners who want assistance with select parts of the process of selling their home, without having to pay the higher full-service fee. While the majority of our clients opt for the full service program, the a la carte menu is still an important part of our service options.
Can you help me fix up my house before it goes on the market?
Absolutely. We have a lot of first-hand construction experience, and have supervised many projects for sellers in getting homes ready for sale. We know many reliable and reasonably priced tradespeople and will make referrals as needed. But just as important as knowing how to get things done is knowing what is best to do, specifically for the purpose of resale. We often find that sellers were about to spend a lot of time and money on projects that would have not paid off in a sale. Talk to us first!
Do you stage your listings? Because the presentation of a house is key in generating interest, and of course, the highest price, homes often benefit from staging and we have excellent consultants in this area. In many cases, however, simply removing some clutter and rearranging some furniture (with our help) can do the trick. Just as with home improvements, the hundreds of dollars one can spend on staging must ultimately reflected in a higher sales price, so we judge each house on a case-by-case basis.
Why do so many people still list with 5% or 6% charging agents?
Ah, the most perplexing question for us, but one which probably has several answers. First, we think many sellers don’t realize that commissions are not fixed. Most homeowners sell only a couple of times in their life, if that, and aren't familiar with how the industry works. Also,the seller sees big advertizing and thinks bigger is better. It's not. Big real estate companies spend a lot of your money advertizing themselves. Their overhead is what you are paying for. To support their rigid pricing structure, many agents will argue that if you pay less, you will get less. Not true! Its all a smokescreen, of course. There is no shortage of unhappy sellers who paid 5% or 6%.
Contact Me
Nicoletta Hayden, CRS, GRI
Direct# 201-314-3553
e-mail: niki@haydenoakley.com