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Is it smart to use a flat fee real estate firm for selling luxury Franklin homes – Selling a home in Downtown Franklin TN.

Franklin Tennessee  A growing city serving as the county seat of Williamson County and a historic city from the civil war located just South of Nashville, TN. Since 2020 there has been a population growth to Franklin as it has become one of the migration destinations and that has inflated home prices over the past two years.

MLS The MLS is the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) or a database controlled and accessed only by licensed real estate agents.  It is the dominant source of real estate listings for sale in any specific area.   This is the best source of exposure to the most buyers via their agents acting as buyer’s agents.  For example, our local MLS known as Realtracs has almost 20,000 licensed agents that access the database.  These 20,000 agents will see new listings and show the homes that they have matching buyers for.  Theses agents will show the properties to their buyers because they are being offered compensation in the form of c-brokering via the MLS.  For example, a listing agent may offer 2-4% of the sales price as an enticement to get the buyer’s agents to show and sell their listings from the MLS inventory.   This compensation is ultimately paid by the seller in their listing agreement with the seller.   But other than that there is no cost to the agent to add a listing to the MLS database.  The agents just have to pay annual dues to be a member and so the MLS is in affect free marketing.

Commission  Traditionally real estate owners (sellers) pay a commission to a real estate agent to market and transact the sale of a home. A portion of that commission is to compensate the listing agent for marketing and eventually transacting the sale and for their expertise and skill, but then some of that commission is paid to the buyer’s agent to motivate them to bring the buyers to the property.   This commission is negotiable but if you asked the the public at large you likely will hear a 6% rate pop up as a typical commission.   As technology has improved and marketing has evolved the cost of marketing has declined and with centrally controlled systems in place that cost can further be reduced.

Flat Fee – Full Service  The fee for service model is not new to the US economy but it is newer to the real estate vertical.   By that I mean that you already expect to pay a flat amount for professional services like your dentist to remove a tooth or put a filling in after your children have to much candy and not enough brushing and flossing, but you don’t think of this when you ask a REALTOR to list your home.  There are real estate flat fee companies that offer a fee just to place the listing into the MLS.  Many of those companies are not even based in the local area where your home is and sometimes are not even in Tennessee.  They are limited service firms or discount brokerages that do not provide expertise and other services in the marketing and transactional area of the sale so they are also known as For Sale By Owner models that just post to the MLS. This means that the seller is engaged in the sale to conduct showings, field calls, prepare and disburse marekting and so on.  Flat Fee – Full Service is different in that they will typically perform all the services that the commission based model will offer just at a different price structure.  While the MLS will drive traffic and showings to your house as discussed above via the buyer’s compensation incentive, not every buyer has a buyer’s agent standing at the ready with them to share new listings that they are seeking or might be seeking if their dream home were to be listed for sale.  That is where marekting comes in to further drive traffic to a property and to drive competition and ultimately the fastest sale at the highest true market price.  If you wanted to search Flat Fee REALTORS in Franklin, TN you would find that there are a few and that some are out of town companies like we mentioned above, some are discount brokerages as we stated above and then some are referral firms that seek to connect you to an agent that they negotiated a lower rate in exchange for business.  Those firms do not plan and have systems to build a business based upon the fee for service concept.   And then you will find Gray Fox Realty.  A locally owned and operated brokerage in downtown Franklin that provides a fee for service real estate model that was completely built from the ground up around the concept that real estate services can be systematized but without losing the experience and expertise that a local agent provides.

Marketing  To truly find what the maximum market value is on a home it needs to have market exposure.  That requires the MLS exposure as well as professional marketing that is tested and refined. Marketing should use reliable and repeatable vendors and resources.  If you are interested in saving money with the real estate services that you choose then you should search for a firm that is local and offers full service so that you can leverage their marketing experience.  If you would like to know what the estimated market value is for your home Gray Fox Realty can certainly get that information for you and since pricing is the most important part of marketing you need local expertise to assist in that analysis.

Luxury home tour video by Gray Fox Realty

Experience The single most important thing that you want in a REALTOR is experience. The reason to see a highly recommended doctor is their experience.  Doctors all had similar education, but it is their real world experiences that set one apart from the others. The same is true in most professions so you want to choose an agent that has experiences that are similar to what you expect and thus looking at their past sales and their reviews is a great way to gauge their experience and skill level.  At Gray Fox Realty, they have great online reviews especially on Zillow and Google so take a look at what past clients are saying about their experience with Gray Fox Realty.  They have sold mostly homes in Williamson County and stray from that for referrals from friends and past clients that are in bordering counties to Williamson County.  The Gray Fox Realty portfolio consists of quality homes and ranges up to $3.5 Million dollars in sale price for a single family home in Franklin.

Luxury Homes – Luxury homes can be marketed well with a flat fee service real estate model and it represents that the seller is savvy and knowledgeable about changes in the real estate industry.  Choose a brand that doesn’t accentuate the listing agent compensation and offers professional services in your local area and has a reputation with the other agents that work this area.  For example a flat fee firm that included Flat, Discount, Fee, or Savings into the real estate company name doesn’t shine the best light on your luxury Franklin home.  The quality of the logo, image and yard sign also are a representation of the quality of the home and should all be considered when choosing a real estate firm and especially when it is not any of the buyer or buyer’s agents business what the seller pays their agent to. help them sell their home.   All of these are reasons that Gray Fox Realty chose a name and logo that represent what the company more so than the pricing structure.  You can trust that Gray Fox Realty will represent your Franklin Luxury home for sale in the best manner deserving of a luxury listing and the past homes that they have sold also indicate that they are accustom to working this niche of homes in Franklin.

Current inventory as of this publication Gray Fox Realty has the following downtown Franklin Luxury home advertised for sale at 322 11th Ave N.