Flat Fee Selling Process

The selling process through our flat fee listing program is very similar to selling through a traditional broker in that the steps are the same.  What differs is who is doing what activity.

The process I have detailed is based on my experiences doing hundreds of deals in the Chicago Metro area. If you live in central Illinois or a different state the process may vary.

Once you have sent in your listing agreement and your listing has been activated on the MLS the real fun begins.

1. Scheduling Showings:  All calls for showings will be sent to you for processing unless you opt for our appointment setting service.  Agents will call you directly for showings.

Buyers calling our 800# can dial in your MLS# and get transferred directly to you.  Any messages that are left on our company voice mail for your property are transcribed by our automated telephone service and sent to you via email along with a audio file that you can listed to and the caller id phone number.

2. Showings:  Of course your home should be ready to show prior to the appointment.  Most buyers with agents will appreciate being allowed to walk through your place without you there.  If a prospective buyer does not have an agent then you should be there for the showing.

3. Feedback: You should call buyer’s agents and try and get feedback after each showing. Say something like: “You showed 123 Main St today and I am just calling for some feedback”. After that pause and let them speak.  You can also ask them how you were priced compared with other homes that they saw. Feedback is important but treat each piece like a data point.  In other words do not necessarily change your strategy based one persons feedback but instead wait until you start hearing the same thing from multiple sources.

4. Adjustments in Strategy: If everyone is telling you that you are priced too high then you may want to consider a price drop.  If no one is scheduling a 2nd showing after you have had 10 or so then you might want to consider a price drop or if you are not getting showings.  Also if you are seeing a lack of showings review your pictures and make sure your pictures are showing your home in the best possible way.

5. Offers: Offers will be sent in to our office as a fax or a pdf and then forwarded to you via email.  We are required to accept and present offers to you per Illinois state law. Offers are usually written up by the buyer’s agent on a real estate board contract.

6. Negotiation: We can assist you through the negotiation process and ensure you get all of your questions answered.

7. Contract acceptance: Once a contract is accepted it enters an attorney review period.  In Illinois both buyers and sellers have attorneys to take them through the deal process.

8. Attorney Review and Inspection: Attorney review generally lasts 5-7 days and all most contracts I have ever seen have attorney review clauses as a standard piece of language.  In my experience it is fairly easy for an attorney to kill a deal during attorney review and give their client a way out of the deal.

The inspection period runs concurrently with attorney review and gives the buyers a chance to have their own 3rd party inspector take a careful look at their new home.  If any material issues are found, the buyers will generally ask for a credit (money back) to make the needed repairs. Attorneys are the ones who negotiate the inspection credit and modify the contracts accordingly.

9. Appraisal: If the buyers are getting a loan to purchase the home, then their bank will want to get the property appraised to make sure that the money they are lending is being backed by an asset that is worth the amount of the loan.  If the appraisal comes in too loan the buyers many times will not be able to get a loan or may want to renegotiate the deal.

10. Final Walk Through: Usually a buyer will want to set up a final walk through just prior to closing. This allows them to verify that the home is in substantially the same condition and when the contract was accepted.  If the home had a fire or a big bad wolf came and blew it away the buyer usually would have a means via the contract to force a remedy to the situation.

11. Closing: At the closing all the paperwork is signed and the transfer of ownership is completed.  The attornies are involved with the preperation and verification of the HUD closing statement. In Illinois this normally takes place at a title company but could also happen at an attorney’s office.  The transfer of keys from buyer to seller usually happens here.

Here is a quick video on the first steps of the flat fee mls process.  It details what happens next directly after signing up.