Comments on Advance Indiana™: Star's Sellout To Realtors?

The law should give consumers the choice to waive ...

2007-12-10T01:27:00.000-05:00

The law should give consumers the choice to waive these rights. If you want to find more brokers that support flat fee mls, you can try our .

Advance Indiana:You say, "this new law denies peop...

2006-09-22T20:27:00.000-05:00

Advance Indiana:

You say, "this new law denies people the choice to decide what's best for them."

This is simply not true. You still have the choice to use any kind of Broker - or none at all - that you choose. Given that you're an Attorney, you are probably more than able to handle all of the contract negotiation should you need to sell your place.

There are dozens of Brokers in operation today - September 22, 2006 - that'll provide you bare-bones services for a VERY LOW flat fee...if that's what you require. HB1339 DOES NOT prevent limited service, fee-for-service or flat-fee Brokers from offering their services.

Some will also do additional marketing if you choose for a fee.

And there are those Home Sellers who wish to pay for full-service marketing, advertising and representation services. Options exist for everyone.

Just because John Slimak yells very loudly doesn't mean that what he says is true.

Joe,The problem with your argument is that there a...

2006-08-03T10:59:00.000-05:00

Joe,

The problem with your argument is that there are some homes that pretty much sell themselves. I live in a downtown area where homes are purchased often within days of going on the market. In these situations, owners know they can sell without the additional assistance of a broker and save thousands of dollars. I will give you that other homes will take much longer to sell if there is not a full service broker working a sale, but this new law denies people the choice to decide what's best for them.

Anonymous:While I appreciate your position, there ...

2006-08-03T10:26:00.000-05:00

Anonymous:

While I appreciate your position, there are a few fatal flaws to your argument.

1. All things are NOT equal. You only "save" money on the sale once your property actually sells. For argument's sake, what if it takes an extra 4 months to sell your home, and you actually sell it for 1% less than you might have using a full-service Real Estate Broker? How much did you save then? Simple math tells me you actually SPENT and extra 2% more than you would have had the home sold faster and at a higher price.

2. Most full-service brokers don't get paid anything up-front. Having paid someone $499 up front removes their incentive to actually WORK to SELL the place.

3. Indiana does, in fact, have every right to dictate the conduct of people to whom it issues licenses. That being said, Indiana law permits you to sell your home on your own, hire an attorney to handle the paperwork, hire a Title Insirance company to handle that end of things, etc.

4. Today, there are over 20,000 houses on the market in Central Indiana. If you believe that all you need is a sign and an MLS listing to sell your house, I can't tell you how wrong you are.

5. I think you might be interested in reading a quote from John Slimak, owner of HomeYeah/HomeChoice: "In the old system, listing 25-30 listings in one month (2 agents) was obtainable. With the new law an agent can’t perform as many transactions due to the work load. Agencies must now add more agents and raise cost to perform the similar type of listing numbers."

Hmmmm...whose butt is Mr. Slimak interested inprotecting here...his or yours?

The simple reality is this. There are HUNDREDS of options today for you to use a flat-fee, limited service, or otherwise a la carte Broker to list your home. The new law does nothing to prevent that. That one broker - yours - chooses to scream about how he's being forced out of business and that consumers are being ripped offf doesn't make it true.

Sell it yourself, hire a limited service broker, hire a full service broker...all those choices still exist.

Best wishes.

Visit my site:href="http://www.flat-mls-fee.com/">...

2006-06-06T12:43:00.000-05:00

Visit my site:
href="http://www.flat-mls-fee.com/"> THEY ARE HIGHLY
RECOMMINDED...

FLAT-MLS-FEE.COM

I HAVE USED THESE FOR YEARS TO FIND INFO!

MLS SEARCH
HTTP://www.multi-listing-service.com

I currently listing my home, through HomeYeah.com....

2006-06-01T14:26:00.000-05:00

I currently listing my home, through HomeYeah.com. I have choosen to proceed this way, as I can eliminate 3% seller's agent commission in lieu of a $499 MLS fee.

This new law doesn't help me, in fact, it hurts. I could do a lot with $5100 that it would save me.
Perhaps I could use it for the cost of gasoline to get to/from work for the rest of the year.

The government has no right to tell someone how they may or may not conduct the sale of their home. It protects realtors, not homeowners.

And the Indianapolis Star should publish a full-front page story on the issue, as I don't believe most of us are aware of this issue. I think that if homeowners were aware - you were hear far more protests.