What is flat fee real estate, and what are the benefits of using a flat fee broker versus a traditional agent? If you’re thinking about selling your home and want to save money on commission fees, read below to learn about this cost-effective alternative to traditional real estate services. In this article, we’ll explain exactly what flat fee is and answer six common questions to help you make an informed decision about your home selling options.

Simply put, flat fee real estate agents charge the same rate, regardless of how much work they do on your behalf. Whether you sell a home for $100,000 or $1,000,000, the fee doesn’t change, and you end up saving a lot of money when it sells. And the even better news? With this type of straightforward pricing, you won’t have any surprise fees when your house sells, and the cost to you remains the same.

6 Common Questions About Flat Fee Real Estate

1. What is Flat Fee Real Estate?

Flat Fee Real Estate is exactly what it sounds like. Instead of paying a traditional real estate agent a percentage of the sales price of your home, you only pay a low, flat fee for their service. In a traditional real estate transaction, you can expect to pay anywhere from 5% – 7% in commission fees when selling a home. However, with Scout Realty, you can list your house for a low, flat fee instead, which allows you to retain more of the equity that you’ve built up in your house.

Scout Realty adopted this strategy in order to shift the real estate experience in favor of the homeowner. By doing so, we are able to provide an unparalleled customer experience, regardless of the price of your home. Whether your home sells for $200,000 or $2,000,000, you still pay the same flat rate. As our founder, Jonathan Harris, explains it, “We’re on a mission to eliminate commission fees. This is how we best serve and create value for our clients.”

2. What are the Benefits of Using a Flat Fee Broker vs. a Traditional Agent?

There are a variety of reasons to sell a home – whether relocating for a job, up or down sizing, or maybe the equity in your home is too good not to capitalize on. Making a profit might not always be the reason you’re selling a home, but one thing is for sure – no one wants to lose the equity that they’ve built up by paying outrageous commission fees. In fact, by selling your home for a flat fee, you’re able to save over $10,000 on average. This is cash that can be used to make a down payment on a new home, or maybe to take that dream vacation you’ve been wanting to take for years.

In order to truly capitalize on the equity you’ve gained in your home, it’s important to understand the difference in how much money you’ll be spending when selling your house with a traditional agent versus a flat fee broker, like Scout Realty. With Scout, we don’t charge a crazy 6% commission fee that most traditional brokers do. We only charge one flat rate when you sell your home. Because a traditional real estate transaction has a standard brokerage fee of 6% on average, the listing agent and the buyer’s agent typically split that commission fee. If a listing agent doesn’t offer the standard rate of 2.5% – 3% commission split, buyers’ agents might refer their clients to other properties, which will slow down the process of your home being sold.

3. How Do Commission Fees Really Work?

 In a traditional home sale, the commission fee is typically around 6% of the final sales price of your home. The commission is split evenly between the listing agent and their broker, which means each party receives roughly 3% of the sales price.

Here’s an example: if your home sells for $500,000 and you agreed to pay your agent and the buyer’s agent a total of 6% percent of the sales price, then you’re automatically out $30,000 in commissions, and can be down over half of YOUR equity! Use our free Instant Savings Calculator to see how much you can save when you sell your home with Scout.

When you choose a flat fee real estate broker like Scout, there’s no need to worry about the crazy overhead of selling your home, regardless of how much a buyer agrees to buy your home for. Instead of worrying, you’ll know BEFORE you go under contract exactly how much you’ll pay to sell your home. There’s no hidden fees or charges – with Scout, it’s one flat fee no matter what.

4. Is Scout Realty Considered a Discount Brokerage?

At Scout Realty, we believe that discounting your cost and discounting your value are two totally different things. We create something that we call ‘Value Innovation’. We’re often asked “how do we create value for people if we don’t charge a full 6%,” or “if we don’t charge 3% on the seller’s side, are we considered a ‘discount brokerage’?”

Our goal at Scout is to:

1. Eliminate or reduce our costs for our clients.

2. Raise or increase the value we provide for them. So, whenever we reduce or eliminate commission fees, this automatically increases the value we have for our customers and provides them the opportunity to retain as much of their home equity as possible.

5. Will My Home Be Listed on the MLS?

An important thing to note is that even when you use a flat fee realtor like Scout Realty, your home will still be listed on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), so that it can be found just like every other home that’s listed in Nashville. The MLS is the main online directory that real estate agents use to list their properties and share them with other agents that also belong to the local MLS. This is an important thing to note because many third-party services, such as Zillow, Realtor.com, NextDoor, Trulia, etc. pull their listings from the same MLS, so your home will get maximum exposure for only a fraction of the price.

6. Would My Home Sell Faster With a Traditional Broker?

In the month of May, Scout Realty sold our flat fee Nashville listings in an average of 6 days. The average for all other Nashville homes that were sold by other brokerages during the month of May was 12 days. This is great news for anyone looking to move quickly and avoid paying thousands of dollars in commission fees. 

Another thing to note is that when you meet with a traditional real estate agent to discuss the sale of your home, you’ll generally get a presentation on how well they plan to market your home. However, an overwhelming majority of properties are sold by the cooperating MLS agent, rather than a listing agent. So, why would you invest a large portion of your equity in someone who will more than likely lean on another agent to sell your home instead? 

This is where Scout Realty comes in. In our Core listing package, we provide professional photographs listed on the MLS, an open house to generate maximum exposure, a feature in our email blast, organic posts on social media and much more! We offer a fully-integrated marketing strategy for every property that lists with us, designed to help your home sell as quickly as possible. 

With a traditional agent, you’re typically required to pay 6% of your home’s sale price. This can be upwards of $15,000-$20,000 in many markets! On the other hand, Scout agents charge a flat fee for their services and consistently sell homes faster and for more money. If you’re looking to save money on commissions or get more exposure than what is offered by most real estate agencies, then we recommend considering our team at Scout Realty. We have an extensive network of local buyers who are actively seeking homes like yours right now so don’t hesitate any longer. Reach out today!

See what you can save with our Instant Savings Calculator!