Flat fee MLS in Michigan

What flat fee MLS means, what the different versions of it cost you in work and in risk, and how to tell which one suits your sale.

What flat fee MLS means

A flat fee MLS listing is a listing where the brokerage charges a set amount instead of a percentage of your sale price. Your home goes into the same multiple listing service that every brokerage uses, and from there it syndicates to Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and the rest through the same feed. A buyer looking at your listing cannot tell how you paid for it.

The phrase gets used for two quite different products, and the gap between them is the whole subject.

The two models

Entry onlyYou get the listingTypically a few hundred dollars. The brokerage enters your home in the MLS and that is the service. You field the calls, arrange the showings, read the offers, handle the negotiation, manage inspection and appraisal, and get yourself to closing. Our MLS Listing package works this way, at $599.

Full serviceYou get the listing and a brokerCosts more than entry only. Offers are presented and negotiated on your behalf, through to closing. Our Full Service package works this way, at $1,199 to start, plus 1% at closing, minimum $2,500.

Both are legitimate. They are sold to different people, and the cheaper one is not automatically the better deal.

What you take on with an entry-only listing

This is the honest list, not a scare list. With an entry-only listing, ours included, you are the one who:

Fields inquiries and schedules showings around your own working week
Decides what an offer is worth once you allow for financing type, contingencies, seller concessions and the closing date
Negotiates directly against a licensed agent who does this professionally and represents the other side
Handles the inspection response, which is where a surprising number of deals are lost
Deals with an appraisal that comes in under contract price
Moves the file toward closing and chases whoever is holding it up
Meets whatever your municipality requires of a seller, which in some Michigan cities includes a pre-sale inspection and a certificate before you can close

Plenty of people do all of that perfectly well, particularly if they have sold before or they already have a buyer. If that is you, an entry-only listing is a rational purchase and you should not pay for help you will not use.

Where the money goes in a traditional sale

Comparisons on this site assume a listing side charge of 3% of the sale price, with a similar figure again for the buyer’s side. Those are illustrations chosen for comparison, not rates any brokerage is required to charge, and what another brokerage would quote you is negotiable. Since August 2024 offers of compensation cannot be advertised in the MLS, and what a seller offers a buyer’s agent is negotiated as part of the purchase agreement rather than published with the listing.

Commission is not set by law and is negotiable, whichever brokerage you use. The figures used here are comparison assumptions, not quotes, and not what any particular brokerage charges.

What that means in practice: the buyer’s side costs roughly the same whichever way you list, and the listing side is the part you can change.

What the listing side costs three ways

On a $350,000 sale, listing side only, excluding anything offered to a buyer’s agent.

ModelCostWho negotiatesWho manages the file

Assumed 3% listing side$10,500Your agentYour agent

Entry-only flat feeA few hundredYouYou

Our packages$599 to $1,199 plus 1% at closing, minimum $2,500You or us, by packageYou or us, by package

Our figure is $599, with nothing due at closing. Entry-only pricing varies by provider and is shown as a range rather than a quote. The pricing page has every package in full, and the proceeds calculator will run your own sale price.

How to choose

An entry-only listing suits you if you have a buyer already, or you have sold a house yourself before and are comfortable negotiating against a professional, and your time is worth less to you than the difference in fee.

A full-service flat fee suits you if you want the listing side cost down but you still want somebody licensed handling the offer, the inspection response and the closing, and you do not want to take calls about showings while you are at work.

A percentage listing suits you if you value something specific that a particular agent offers and you think it is worth several thousand dollars more than the alternative. That is a real answer for some sellers and some houses.

Where we sit

We sell all three positions rather than one. MLS Listing is entry only and you run the sale. Offer Support adds a licensed read on every offer. Full Service adds negotiation and stays with the transaction through to closing. What each costs today, what is owed only on a closing, and the total if the property sells are all set out on the pricing page — we quote a total rather than a starting figure, because a starting figure is not what you end up paying.

The whole model rests on one observation: listing a $600,000 house is not twice the work of listing a $300,000 house, so charging twice as much for it is hard to defend. Pricing the work rather than the equity is the entire idea.

Full detail on pricing and packages, the arithmetic on flat fee versus commission, and the process on how it works.

Common questions

Is a flat fee listing on the same MLS as everyone else?

Yes. There is one multiple listing service serving a given market and every brokerage in it uses the same one. Your listing is entered the same way and syndicates through the same feed.

Will buyer’s agents avoid my listing because it is flat fee?

A buyer’s agent is paid from what is negotiated in the purchase agreement, and they cannot see how you paid your own side. What they do notice is a listing that is hard to show or slow to respond, which is an argument for representation rather than against a flat fee.

Do I still have to offer the buyer’s agent a commission?

Not required, and it cannot be advertised in the MLS in any case. It is negotiated as part of the purchase agreement. We do recommend offering something: most buyers come represented, and an offer that covers their agent is simpler for them to make. Because our own fee is a flat figure rather than an assumed 3%, what you offer is added to a much smaller listing-side figure.

Is flat fee the same as for sale by owner?

No. With for sale by owner there is no brokerage involved at all and your home is not in the MLS. A flat fee listing puts you in the MLS; the difference between the models is how much that brokerage then does for you. If you are still deciding whether to sell on your own at all, selling a house by owner in Michigan covers what the job involves.

What is the catch with the cheapest entry-only listings?

There is not usually a catch so much as a scope. You get what is advertised: an MLS entry. The work that a listing agent would otherwise do stays with you, and the cost of getting one of those pieces wrong can be larger than the fee you saved.

Do you cover my part of Michigan?

Our service area runs across Southeast Michigan and further in many cases. Check an address on the cities and townships page and it will tell you straight away.

Ready to list? Tell us the address and what you want handled. We will verify your address is in our service area, recommend a package, and send the listing agreement before anything is paid.

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