Posts tagged: real estates

Most real estate agents are not marketing experts. They did not get into real estate on their way to a lucrative marketing career. In fact many agents don’t know anything about marketing and so they just do things as they have always been done. And the way it has always been done in real estate is with image advertising. This is not news. It is an obvious fact that can be found by simply looking around your own neighborhood and in your own mailbox.

One of the major aspects of image advertising employed by real estate agents is the large color photo of themselves. When I see these kinds of ads and signs, with the agent’s picture being the most prominent thing in them, I wonder why I should care what they look like. I know this will sound harsh to many of you that are currently using this kind of advertising, but I am not sure how my real estate agent being photogenic will help them sell my home. I consider myself to be an average consumer. And as such, for me to pick up the phone and call the phone number off of any advertising, I need to see the benefit to me. I don’t see any benefit to me in these ads.

So if image advertising is not the way to go, what is? Direct response advertising. With a direct response ad you give people a reason to pick up the phone and call you. You can compel people to dial into a call capture hotline with any number of benefits to them. The key is that you offer them something of value such as a coupon, a free report, or a free home evaluation. People are much more likely to call an agent that is offering them a free report on “10 Tips To Selling Your Home Fast” than they are an agent that is only offering them a nice smile.

The other important thing that you can do in a direct response ad is set yourself apart from the competition. This kind of marketing is perfect for yellow pages ads. If you look at the ads that are usually running in the phone book, they all look the same. What is going to compel someone to choose you over all the other agents in there? If you use the standard image advertising approach, there is nothing there to get the consumer to pick up the phone and call you. However, if you have a direct response ad that immediately grabs their attention and tells the consumer what you are going to offer them (a FREE report for example) and how to get it (by calling your 24/7 toll free call capture hotline) you set yourself apart from all the other agents in the book.

Direct response advertising also has one more major advantage over image advertising. You can’t track image advertising. Image advertising has its place and that is in businesses that have the time and resources that are necessary to have people recognize their name or logo on sight. Real estate agents usually do not fall into that category. They are working with tighter budgets and shorter timelines. They need to know if the ads they are using are working now, what their return on investment is, and what ads need to be scrapped. This can all be accomplished with direct response advertising. Direct response advertising, when done correctly, has a call to action built in that when acted on, can be tracked using call capture technology. This allows real estate agents to really see what is working for them and what is not.

Most real estate agents are not marketing gurus. When they got their real estate license it did not come with a degree in marketing. So it is understandable that most agents just do things the way they have always been done when it comes to advertising. Unfortunately, that is image advertising. If you want to compel people to call you, stand out from your competition and be able to track your results from your advertising efforts, direct response marketing is the way to go.

Real estate pricing and marketing can be a daunting task for both wholesalers, rehabbers, and agent. To know the right offer can be a haggle. To be able to sell your deal quickly can also be very challenging. And finally to get paid for your project much quicker… well you know how the story ends sometimes.

Real Estate Pricing And Marketing: Know Your Numbers

My goal has always being to find ways to make things much simpler and faster for folks so that people can concentrate on closing deals and making money. Couple of friends and clients I have come across still do really struggle with juggling numbers from deal to deal and numbers matters in every deal you are making. It doesn’t matter if you are selling, buying, rehabbing, renting, or wholesaling. You should know your numbers and get it right. Without which things will start falling apart and if it does, the center can no longer hold. The snowball effect ranges from you losing out on a good deal, or you may not be able to find the right margin as leverage. Or even you may lose out on a good rehab deal or wholesale contract. Hence know your numbers.

Finding The Right Real Estate Pricing And Marketing Software For Your Business

You don’t have to be a mathematician to find and know your numbers. There are thousands of apps and software out there that can help you with a certain degree of number crunching. But the question is:

• How to do you know the real deal from the fake?
• How do you choose the right software that meets your business need?
• How do you understand the need of your business so that you can be able to match it with the right software?

All these questions will remain unsolved if you do not know what software suits your business. A single mix up may end up producing the wrong information which can destroy your business.

For example, a rehabber, wholesalers, brokers, agents and commercial real estate investors and developers may use the same or different software, These, in particular, may yield different results to different users depending on what the intended use is for. Some software is tailored to serve a combination of users while some are designed to serve only one type of market.

Another example is the rental sector in the real estate investing industry. Any software designed to target rental market will be super beneficial to every landlords, house or property owners who relied more on rental income instead of house flipping.

So there you have it. I hope the above break down helps you understand how to find the right software that suits your real estate business needs.

In my experience, I came across this free software that you can not only do your property valuation but also rehabilitation, analysis, and close deal much faster. The software can go further in helping you find buyers, or sellers near you and also find lenders and get funding for your project. You can easily create a killer and convincing presentation for your lenders and partners, create flyers and send out emails to your potential buyers and get them emailing or calling you in no time.

A colleague told me about this tool, actually it is free software and now I am sharing it with you. It is definitely the best thing that happens when analyzing incoming deals for lenders.

You can thank me later.

Although, there are numerous advantages, to hiring the best real estate agent, to represent your needs, and goals, whether, you are selling or buying a home, be careful, to hire someone, who, consistently, keeps the REAL, in this activity! After, over 15 years, as a Real Estate Licensed Salesperson, in the State of New York, and, representing, both, sellers and buyers, I strongly believe, the Code of Ethics, must be, not only a philosophical, guiding document, but, treated, as a necessity, by any responsible agent. Before hiring anyone, have an in – depth, discussion, focused on, determining the specific individual’s quality of character! Since, for most people, the value of a house, represents their single – biggest, financial asset, doesn’t it make sense, to do, everything, possible, to be, both, informed, as well as prepared, regarding, anything, relevant, and related to this process? With, that in mind, this article will attempt to, briefly, consider, examine, review, and discuss, using the mnemonic approach, what this means, and represents, and why it matters.

1. Realistic; relevant; responsive/ responsible; related: How can an agent serve your best interests, if he isn’t realistic, and offers, pie – in – the – sky, promises, to attract your business, when relevant, accurate, true statements and information, are needed? The finest, real estate professionals proceed, consistently, in a responsive way, which is responsible to you (as their client), while being, thoroughly, absolutely, ethical! Knowing how your house, is related, and comparable, to others, is an essential, necessary ingredient, in this process!

2. Empathy; emphasis; excellence; endure; efforts; ethics: Without high ethics, the client isn’t properly served and represented! Great agents proceed with genuine empathy, and place their emphasis, accordingly, in order to be able to address one’s clients perceptions, needs, goals, and priorities! Avoid anyone, satisfied, with, merely, good – enough, and/ or, the same – old, same – old, but hire someone, who demands his utmost degree of personal excellence, consistently! This individual needs the endurance, and persistence, to stick – with – it, to ensure his efforts, focus on his client’s best interests!

3. Attitude; aptitude; attention; actions; articulate; astute: When you hire, someone, with a positive, can – do, attitude, and a well – developed, relevant aptitude, and skill – set, who pays keen attention, to everything, related to the process, his actions, generally, are more beneficial, to your priorities, etc! Consider the overall, as well as specific message, one articulates, and what it indicates, about the individual, and how he might represent you!

4. Listen; learn; limits; lessons: Great representation requires effectively, listening, and learning, constantly, and consistently! He must, realistically, inform his client, the true limits, in order to proceed, on the same – page! When agents teach those, they represent, these lessons, are extremely valuable, important, and essential!

Keep it REAL, when you hire the best agent, to represent your real estate interests, etc! Will you proceed, wisely, and carefully, to achieve the best results?

Today, halfway 80% of coinage buyers globally affect their travel on FSBO websites. This increases the punch of selling properties faster without having to reaction with realtors or estate agents who charge heavy commissions and brokerage fees. Some of the benefits of selling your property yourself as a seller and an agent/ broker are discussed below. If you are a landlord of the property and desire to sale your house yourself, you have ingeniously simple opportunities to close a sale with up to 6 to 8% commission/ brokerage yourself keeping positive mind. You can have an earning potential of at first off 6 to 8% of the sale value, which would have gone away by estate agents.

It is common that nowadays homeowners much occupy the services of a real estate Makin’s to supply their property. But additional and more relatives are looking at selling their homes directly themselves through for sale by owner sites. Selling properties owing to sale by owner websites is becoming a development trend and is gaining much popularity. FSBO properties are actually the most demanding localities and if you are a house owner, you’re thinking constraint trigger a few thousand money from the sale of your property.You need to check the market trends of the property you are going to buy because a home for sale is always expected to have a lower price than a normal price prevailing in the market. Many websites provides help to consider the right price of a house.

You should even provide photo of your FSBO property as this option is also available on various websites. You should besides provide the phone number; mobile number and email id also should cope each again every mark out or email make-believe to you.

These were a few techniques helpful in selling your FSBO property. In today’s market selling of a property is an immense task. Your strain of selling your house is fabricated easy through various websites. For a sale to be successful, one must offer client a handsome price, be horizontal with market trends and have patience to get it closed successfully.

If you are looking for a cheap and beautiful apartment, you need to work on your deal-finding and negotiation skills. Before you go ahead and negotiate, make sure you know what you need. Given below are 6 tips that may help you rent the right apartment.

#1: Use an apartment locator

First of all, you need to consider a few important features before you look for an apartment in your area. You can check out an apartment locator as well. There are many websites that can serve this purpose. This tool can help you find the right place for you.

#2: Consider your needs

You want an apartment that can meet your needs, not those of your friend’s. Make sure the place is located in the type of neighborhood you like. It should have all of your desired features.

#3: Call a local Locator

You can also contact a local apartment locator for help. In the same way, you can also use a phone book.

It’s a good idea to make a call to at least 2 providers to ask about rental neighborhoods and communities. Make sure you let them know about the features you are after.

Since the locators work for commission, they will try their level best to find you the property you need.

#4: Call a Community

Make sure you pay a visit to the property before you make the decision. It’s even better if you make a call to ask for a quote. Once you are in the apartment, the agent may impress you with the features of the property. On the phone, you will just get numbers. What you need to do is compare the numbers you get with the figures you found online.

#5: Visit the apartment

Although virtual tours can help you make the final decision, you shouldn’t rely on them alone. You can find these tour videos on websites, and this can give you some idea of the features of the property. However, it’s important to keep in mind that visiting the house in person is a must. You just can’t rely 100% on the virtual tours. To get a better feel, you still need to walk around your neighborhood.

#6: Review the features

Make sure you review the features you want in the house. Actually, you should remove the features that are on the bottom of your priority list. This will help you have you choose from a broader list of properties that may have the features you want. You should make adjustments to your list based on the short list of features. Finally, you should make the renting decision after weighing the features and the price you are willing to pay.

The Takeaway

So, these are a few things that you should keep in mind when looking for an apartment to rent. Keep in mind that you will get what you pay for but keeping a few basic things in mind can go a long way.

If you’re a home owner suffering under the current economic climate, you might be looking to sell your own home in order to regain financial control. This is an extremely good idea, as you can always buy another home once the hard times are over. If you’re a bit uneasy about opting for a private sale, you might be surprised at how easy it actually is, especially once you have a solid plan in place.

It’s very possible to have your home sold within 21 days if you know what you’re doing. In fact, the current housing market is jam-packed with buyers because of the low prices, so it’s actually quite easy. The tough part will be getting a solid price without dropping down too much. See, buyers know how desperate home owners are to sell, which makes it a tough game. However, there are also a few powerful strategies you can use to sell for a higher price.

The first step to make this plan successful is to solidify your confidence in the price. Get in a third-party valuer, and get his or her full, honest opinion. You want to aim for a value in the top range, and be prepared to make a hard sell for it. Trust me, it IS possible to get a high price even in a buyers market!

Once you’ve got a confident price, it’s time to advertise. The key is to make your ads unique and original, and to use the internet for all it’s worth. There are plenty of free real estate websites out there that give your property good exposure to a wide crowd of buyers. You can even pay a few bucks to get extra viewing space in many sites.

To make your ads powerful and original, put yourself into the shoes of a salesperson. Be exciting, be confident, and NEVER use the word “negotiable”! Saying this word is like saying “I picked a price and just added $20,000 so you can knock a bit off if you like”. Really sounds confident, doesn’t it?

When you’re ads have seen some good exposure, you’ll start to get calls from prospective buyers. Invite them into your home, and make sure the place is clean! There are a few methods you can do this. The first is to invite each buyer one at a time to give the impression of a close, personal relationship. The other is to hold an event-like mass showing. Each have their pros and cons, so it’s up to you.

When the general economy starts to go down, people start looking for ways to cut corners and save as much money as possible. One way people are doing this is to sell their house themselves. For Sale by Owner, or FSBO for short, has become a viable option for people that are looking to sell their home in today’s economy.

With all of the tools online people are feeling like they can sell their home themselves without needing a real estate agent. Many website have realized this and popped up to offer help to people that are trying to sell their home by themselves so they can hopefully avoid the pitfalls.

Another time that the FSBO method is very popular is when someone is not able to afford the 6% commission that comes with selling through a real estate agent. If the home is at or below the price you need to make in order to pay off the loan you may not be able to afford any extra out of pocket expenses.

The FSBO way is often the step that many homeowners take first on their road to selling their house. Keeping this in mind you will find many sites that offer low rates to help this segment of the market before the homeowner decides to go the traditional way of using a real estate agent. Many sites that offer FSBO will include some, or all, of the following features.

Basic listing features including a link for a virtual tour

• A template for a printable flyer
• Workbooks to assist the homeowner in their research of what they need to know and what they need to do prior to attempting a sale.
• Listings that compare to the listings of a real estate agency site
• Offering a flat fee for listing the home as long as needed, without additional weekly or monthly add-ons
• Pricing reports to help you value your home appropriately
• Typical yard signs much like those used by real estate agents
• No limit on the number of pictures on your listing
• Access to a free consultation line for questions

With all of these services it is no wonder that these types of sites are quickly becoming the first call people are making when they start the process of selling their home. You have a better chance of selling your FSBO home if you are able to be patient and by doing some research on their own.

The key to success is centered on the reason the homeowner wishes to sell their house. If they simply need to upsize for a new addition to the family, to downsize after the kids have gone to college, to change locations closer to or further away from the city, or just for a general change of scenery, patience can be the key.

However if you are moving because you are changing employment, marriage, divorce, or any number of other reasons the move may have to be more immediate. In the past companies that wanted to hire a worker would pay for the house and the expenses from relocating. Due to the sagging economy this has become a lot less popular because companies are trying to save money and quality people are looking for a job everywhere.

FSBO is a viable way to get the home out into the spotlight and into the market without the fees from realtors. Then if FSBO doesn’t work out, the homeowner has the option to sign up with a qualified real estate agency to sell the house and continue where the FSBO support ended. Your decision on how to sell your house, is entirely dependent on your situation.

For those who are interested in the very popular Wix website builder here is a bit of history on this company. Wix was founded in 2005 and its headquarters are located in New York. Wix website builder does a nice job of standing up against of the many popular website builders out there that are available. Wix has helped in the building of well over eleven million websites at this point in time.

Ease of Use

Wix is very user-friendly platform that even those that are not so computer savvy can use. The very easy drag and drop feature is one of the major advantages of Wix that has made it so popular and easy to use. Building static web pages with Wix is done easily but here is a major advantage with Wix, you can also build using Flash. Using Flash with Wix makes it possible to build beautiful websites with great designs. The advantage of using Flash draws many users including those who want to showcase their photography and artwork. The advantage of being able to use Flash draws in many customers because of the freedom in design and graphics. Many website owners turn to Wix to totally transform their websites to bring in more business to their companies.

Affordable Price

Not only is the Wix website builder very easy to use it is also very affordable. What may website builders are unaware of is that you can use your already existing website with Wix. Wix has a number of packages that you are able to choose from that make it quite affordable. The prices of packages range from about $5 to $20 a month. Depending on what you are trying to accomplish with your website including eCommerce is very affordable and easy to accomplish. Adding affordability with ease of use makes this a certain winner. Coupons are also available to help on the costs, which there is one offered here.

Huge Selection of Templates

One of the drawbacks of other website building programs is that the template selections haven’t been that good. One of the big pros with Wix is that there is a large selection of templates available to choose from. Whether you are building a website for business or just a family website there are over hundreds of templates. For those who do not know how to build a website or just do not want to attempt it, this is a certain stress reducer. All a user has to do is sit and go through the many templates until they find the one that works for their particular taste. Templates are free with no added costs.

Wix has proven to be extremely useful for those who are not technically savvy and want to build a website or spruce up an already existing website with the use of Flash. The one drawback that has been reported is having to upgrade in order to be able to use all of the functions. Overall, the small cost involved is well worth having the ability to use the functions available. For this being the only drawback available there is really not much to not be satisfied with.

What is Astrology?

The prediction of a person’s future (what is going to happen to you) based on a comparison of the zodiacal data for the time of birth with the data from the period under consideration. the configuration of the planets, the sun, and the moon in the sky at a particular moment.

1.Horoscope.com

Horoscope.com is the premier destination for free horoscope content. Offering an extensive selection of free daily, weekly and monthly readings, Horoscope.com is a daily destination for the majority of its ever-growing audience of over 5 million monthly unique visitors. they team of Astrologers hand-craft all of the content on the site, and they are constantly working together to conceptualize exciting new content features.

2.Astrologyzone.com

The latest in astrological trends by Susan Miller, comprehensive, complete, intelligent, and accurate. Your life in 3D: culture, style, romance, money, real estate. Read this month’s horoscope, Taurus, Cancer, Scorpio Virgo, Libra…

3.Ganeshaspeaks.com

Daily Astrology, Free Today’s Horoscope, Love Horoscope, Daily/Today’s Horoscopes GaneshaSpeaks. Get accurate forecasts for all-star/ sun/zodiac signs on love, career and more.

4.Astroyogi.com

Astroyogi.com is recognized as the premier astrology consulting service provider in India. they are a mobile marketplace for astrology and its related advisory services. they help customers hire trusted esoteric professionals for all their astrology needs. they have a team of young.

5.Indianastrologyhoroscope.com

Indianastrologyhoroscope.com was founded with a mission of providing online personalized astrology consultation to each of its customers. To achieve this mission, they have a team of astrologers who are renowned and recognized all over the globe for their knowledge of ancient principles of Vedic astrology.

6.Tarot.com

Tarot.com is the world’s leading Tarot and Astrology website, with more than 4 million members worldwide.

Launched in Portland in 1995, Tarot.com is part of Daily Insight Group (DIG) and Japan’s Zappallas, Inc., which publish a network of popular entertainment websites for horoscopes, Astrology, Numerology, Tarot, and gaming.

7. ClickAstro

Here you can even get a prediction for the next quarter of your life! So they offer the prediction for as long as 25 years from the time you approach them.

They offer a host of free services like – daily horoscope, kundli, love compatibility, marriage horoscope, pachanga prediction, Chinese horoscope, Chinese love compatibility, numerology, daily panchang, feng shui, wealth horoscope and marriage horoscope.

8. Astroved.com

Well, that’s how they like to be known and from what we know, the subscribers of this portal vouch for it as well.

The scope isn’t just restricted to family, love and work… they also have a special programme where they assess students and throw light on their weaknesses and strength.

Further, you can even check on your name change report, birth chart report, birth star report and lots more! It isn’t uncommon to find their email in our inbox.You may have not subscribed to them but then yet you may find them in your mail box asking you to subscribe and at times offering you some free predictions we well.

9. Astrosage.com

The look of the portal is a bit cluttered but then keeping in mind the plethora of services they offer, you can overlook the design dynamics being followed by them.

Headquartered in Noida, they claim to be one of the most authentic astrology online service providers.

10. Astromitra.com

The second part of their name ‘mitra’ suggests a bond of friendship. They claim to be a ‘world of astrology experts’.

From offering live astrology to horary astrology, they also offer – career report, detailed life report, foreign travel astrology and education horoscopeThe free services include – free Vedic birth chart calculator, daily horoscope prediction by date of birth, monthly horoscope, moon sign horoscope and weekly horoscopes.

They also have an online store where you can buy gemstones, authentic rudraksha and report on numerology name business correction.

11. Astroyogi.com

From offering Tarot Card reading to Feng Shui guidance, Astryogi is a one-stop solution for any field of astrology you are comfortable with.

They specialize in Vedic Astrology as well. An amazing feature that caught our attention here was their service on Palm Reading.

Who are you going to believe about how the flat fee MLS industry works?

There are four “business models” offering flat fee MLS listings in Florida:

1) National Website: They are not licensed in Florida but collect money and then refer you to a Florida discount real estate broker-who gets a portion of the fees collected. National websites are competent business enterprises that usually have a real estate broker’s license in one state but not in all states.

2) Florida part-time amateur flat fee website: There must be 70 or so of these “websites” in Florida. They are licensed real estate brokers that do flat fee listings part-time or are testing the waters to see if they can make a few bucks at flat fee.

3) Florida broker that is masquerading as flat fee: They seem like flat fee but their business model is not consumer friendly and I see their business practices as questionable. They may or do take your buyer leads from Realtor.com and other sources for their own agents; or possibly charge a cancellation fee as high as $500; or hold your listing hostage until you pay up ($500) by only “conditionally” withdrawing your listing from the MLS if you attempt to cancel and move to a full-service agent – your listing will be trapped in this “conditional” status until you pay the ransom of $500.

4) Florida licensed flat fee MLS broker that is established, trusted, transparent and paperless, specializes in Internet marketing and offers real customer support.
(Note: There is more than one trusted MLS flat fee firm in Florida but there are also plenty of firms that do fall into the # 2 and #3 categories above as well.)

Flat fee MLS requires more than simply inputting a listing into a local MLS…

1) Flat fee MLS sellers in Florida are 100% driven by control. They want their MLS listing correct at all times.

2) Third party websites such as Realtor.com, local MLS systems and IDX feeds to local real estate brokerage firms must be monitored constantly because listings do fall out of these systems. Technical glitches happen frequently.

3) Sellers make adjustments to their listing such as pictures, price, commission and their property descriptions. There are needed forms such as mold, lead-based paint and property disclosures.

4) The Florida Flat fee MLS broker is charged with the responsibility of buyer lead capture, agent showing requests, Internet marketing, trouble shooting, customer service, negotiating, editing and peace making. Flat Fee MLS brokers must be prepared to dedicate their time and energy.

Flat Fee MLS brokers must be prepared to dedicate their time and energy…

1) Taking $200 bucks and throwing a listing into the MLS as an afterthought is not what flat fee should be about. There are more moving parts that make up a “real” flat fee MLS company than one can imagine. For example: Last week, Orlando Regional MLS just took over Venice Board of Realtors. When they did this conversion, it knocked out 53 Realtor.com “showcased” properties from Mid-Florida Regional (Orlando area). It occurred on a Thursday evening and took the resources of the vice-president of Mid-Florida Regional and the Director of Operations and many phone calls to straighten out the major glitch.

2) Amateur or part-time flat fee MLS “website” operators might not have the resources or experience to deal with such matters.

3) The flat rate MLS broker must be prepared to back up the customer with support and market effectively on the Internet.

4) If the MLS discount broker requests that you print out forms, fill them out and fax back, this means they have put no thought or investment into on-line automation. This means listing changes, edit, status changes will all be fax this-fax that….back to caveman days.

What to look out for before you list flat fee

1) If the flat fee MLS “website” does not display the “listing agreement”, that should be a warning.

2) Carefully read the listing agreement “beginning-to-end” before you give any flat fee company money whether a National or a Florida based service.

3) Understand the process and policy about how buyer leads from Realtor.com and other sources get to you, the seller, if at all.

4) Realize that many calls do go to the flat fee broker. As many as 70 calls a day can come into a flat fee MLS broker. Miss one, that could be your sale.

5) Consider and verify what the hours are for the flat fee MLS service.

6) Flat fee websites that offer just one marketing option are really just a “website.” There are many marketing approaches besides just a basic MLS listing. What about marketing directly to Realtors®. For example, if a seller wishes to offer a 4% buyer’s agent commission, does the flat fee service provide a way to promote this higher than average commission? Some flat fee services do offer a Realtor eblast program which sends about 12,000 or so emails to all Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and Jacksonville real estate agent every 15 days. This is an effective marketing approach and Realtors do respond.

7) Flat fee sellers should think about contract representation. Contract-to-close flat fee programs help get the deal done faster. Having a seasoned real estate professional handle the contract negotiations results in a smoother transaction for the seller, as well, possibly netting a higher sale. One of the trickiest parts of negotiations is the possible- subsequent re-negotiations after the inspection. Negotiating an inspection report does mean re-roofing the house because some inspector or Realtor® says the roof is at the end of its “useful” life. There is an art to getting the buyer’s agent, the buyer and the seller on the same page. As well, there are some important nuances that do help get more Realtor® showings such as allowing the flat fee broker to schedule showings (more professional), using an Exclusive Right of Sale (not Exclusive Agency Listing Agreement) and use a professional looking metal sign.

How to flat fee list in Florida and stay out of trouble

1) Read the listing agreement.

2) Call the flat fee service and ask how they handle buyer leads.

3) Call and verify the hours of operation.

4) Ask if there any penalties or conditions if you cancel the listing.

5) Ask if the listing company will “unconditionally “withdraw your listing from the MLS if you choose to cancel and go with a full-service agent.