Flat fee company wants $3,500, the agent wants 2.5%, on a $310k rental

Put it in dollars and the question gets narrower. $4,250 saved on a $310k sale is 1.37% of price. So the flat fee wins only if your own pricing, exposure, and negotiating land within 1.37% of what she'd have gotten. That's a tighter band than most sellers think.

What's wrong with that framing: it assumes both routes produce the same buyer pool. If she has a list of people who wanted this street and you don't, the two aren't the same house on the market.

Flat fee works fine if you price it right and you actually answer your phone at 7pm on a Saturday. Most sellers do neither and then blame the model.

How many hours do you think the showings and the calls take you, and what's your hourly worth on the thing you'd otherwise be doing? If the answer is "nothing, I'd be watching TV," the flat fee looks better than it does for someone billing their time.

I'd pay the 2.5% and go do something else. I know that's the unadventurous vote.

Get the flat fee company's actual service list in writing and read it line by line. I've seen ones where "MLS entry" means six photos and you upload them, and ones where changing your price costs $75 a time. The $3,500 number means nothing until you know what's inside it. Also ask who fields the calls from buyer agents, because if that's you, plan on a lot of them in week one.

What happens if it doesn't sell? That's the question I'd ask both of them before anything else. With the flat fee, is the money gone at 90 days? With the agent, what's the term and can you cancel, and is there a fee if you do? @marlow do you know either answer yet?

@anchor that's the right place to look. Two clauses I'd read out loud before signing either one: the term, and the protection period, which is the language saying that if you sell to someone the broker introduced within X days after the agreement ends, the commission is still owed. That's normal and reasonable, and the window and the wording vary by state and by brokerage form, so check the one in front of you rather than what someone here tells you is standard.

Also look at whether the flat fee agreement makes you the one signing the buyer-agent compensation offer and how it gets documented. Under the current rules the seller has to approve that in writing, and how it's papered differs by MLS.

Your redeploy timeline probably matters more than $4,250. If the money is going into something with a closing date, three extra weeks on market can cost more than the fee spread. If it's going into a savings account while you think, the spread is the whole question.

Depends heavily on where the house is. In the thin rural markets I watch, the buyer pool is small enough that the agent's phone list is most of the marketing, and a lockbox in the MLS does very little. In a busy suburb with twelve comparable sales a quarter, the flat fee route has a much better chance.

Add a wrinkle for pricing. If you're in one of the states that doesn't publish sale prices, you can't check your own comps against public records, so you're relying on whatever the flat fee company gives you or on an appraisal you pay for. That's an argument for the agent in those states specifically.

Tenant-occupied is the part I'd worry at. Showings mean giving notice each time, and notice requirements vary by state. Who is coordinating that with your tenant, and how does the tenant feel about strangers on Saturdays? A cranky tenant can cost you more than either fee.

Slightly lost on one thing. Is the 2.5% to the buyer's agent part of the 2.5% she quoted, or on top? Because if it's on top then the full service route is 5% total and the comparison isn't $7,750 against $3,500 at all.

@vellum on top. Two separate decisions now. The listing agent's fee is what you negotiate with her, and any compensation offered to the buyer's agent is a separate thing the seller decides and approves in writing. It doesn't go in the MLS anymore, so it gets communicated other ways. Most sellers still choose to offer something, because a buyer who has to pay their agent out of pocket has less cash for the down payment and may just skip the house.

@marlow's spread of $4,250 is only on the listing side, which is the right way to compare, since the buyer-agent offer is the same decision either way.

I'm in licensing classes now, and the thing that surprised me is how much of the first week is coordination rather than selling. Lockbox codes, sign install, MLS fields, remarks, scheduling service, feedback chasing. None of it is hard. It's all small and it all has to happen on time, and if you drop the sign install for four days on a $310k house you've probably cost yourself more than $3,500.

Whatever you pick, walk the house with a flashlight first. Drips, a running toilet, the outlet the tenant covered with a dresser. Buyers price that stuff at three times what it costs to fix, which dwarfs the fee argument.

Tenant-occupied photos are the other silent cost. If the place shows with somebody's laundry on the couch, you're behind before you start, and no fee structure fixes that. I've paid tenants a few hundred dollars for a clean day and it was the best money in the deal. @marlow if the flat fee route means you're the one negotiating that with your tenant, factor in that conversation too.