Frequently Asked Questions

MLS, Multiple Listing Service, is an independent service to find real estate MLS listings for sale by Realtors® and other realty professionals that are members of the local Board of Realtors. This includes homes for sale (new homes, resale homes and new construction), rental and lease properties, acreage, lots and land, and commercial and investment properties. MLS does not work directly with any real estate buyers or sellers, and does not receive any commissions or referral fees from any resulting transactions.

The MLS database holds one of the largest inventories of homes that are ready for sale or rent, which makes it a vital tool to increase exposure for your property. MLS listings have all the specifics a buyer is looking for, such as square footage, number of bedrooms and baths and age of the property, along with photos of the home. Through MLS the home can be listed on every major real estate website, decreasing transaction time by increasing visibility.

Flat Fee MLS Realty will return the listing to you for review within 1 business day of receiving the completed listing forms. This time does not include holidays. If additional information is needed to verify property ownership or complete missing required MLS fields, the expedited listing time starts once the missing information is provided. The listing synopsis is returned to you for review and approval before the listing goes active on MLS.

Yes! Besides the MLS, your home will appear on Realtor.com, Zillow, Trulia, Homes.com, RealEstate.com, local real estate brokerage websites that display MLS listings, and all of the major brokerages that feed directly from MLS.

Please note: we cannot guarantee that your listing will show up on every site, as some websites are slow, stop syndicating or have occasional technical issues.

Yes! Flat Fee MLS Realty is proud to be Florida owned and operated (License #CQ1053892). We are not an unlicensed, out-of-state, third-party corporation, and we don’t sell your information to anyone. All of our MLS listings are posted under our Broker, Stephen Hachey (License #BK3389117).

You are not required to offer a commission, but we highly recommend it. A buyer’s agent commission is the amount you are willing to pay a real estate agent who brings you a willing and able buyer. In our opinion the amount should be competitive, typically between 2% and 3% of the selling price. The more you offer, the more enticed a buyer’s agent will be to bring a buyer to your home.

No. Our service is strictly a flat fee service. If you find the buyer, you keep that commission as well.

Yes. If you change your mind before your property is listed on MLS (usually within 24–72 hours of our office having all the necessary information), you receive a full refund. Once the listing has gone “Active” on MLS, there are no additional fees to cancel or remove your listing at any time, as long as you have not accepted an offer.

Yes! If you find a buyer on your own, you pay absolutely no buyer’s agent commission.

Yes! Your listing is added to the local MLS and looks the same as every other listing. The format is standard for all listings within MLS.

No. Our broker will be happy to refer you to a third-party escrow officer at a title company or an attorney.

We are a licensed real estate brokerage and are happy to answer any question you have. To change your listing (price, description and so on), send us your request in writing by email or through our website, and the listing will be updated within 24 hours. The number of changes allowed depends on your plan.

There are several excellent lockboxes on the market, usually costing around $25. A lockbox is included with our Platinum plan.

After you choose a plan and submit payment, you register as a user and get access to our customer portal. There you provide all property information and upload your photos. Photos must be .jpg files of at least 800 × 600 pixels (or 600 × 800 pixels for portrait photos).

The Silver plan has a listing term of 3 months and the Gold plan 6 months. On the Platinum plan the listing term is unlimited. To extend your listing term, please contact our office; an additional fee may apply.

Selling a home takes time and patience. All appointments, negotiations and offers will be directly with you. We provide all the real estate resources you need from listing to closing, and if at any time you want the help of an agent, we can help with that too.

Yes. Flat Fee MLS Realty deducts $400 from the buyer’s agent commission at closing. For example, the commission offered to a buyer’s agent in the MLS would be 2.5% minus $400. It is not an additional fee owed by the seller, and if there is no buyer’s agent, no fee is due.

Yes. To lower your costs we connect you with a statewide network of affiliated title/closing agents. They are generally attorney driven and guarantee the minimum rate set by the Florida Department of Insurance for the owner’s title insurance policy, so you save a bundle.

You are still free to choose any title/closing agent you like. You agree to pay $499 at closing to Flat Fee MLS Realty for the cost of coordinating the closing with the title/closing agent, regardless of who selects title on the contract.