Hey everyone, It’s David Edgerton, Texas real estate broker, and the “Edge in Texas Real Estate.” 

In this video, I’m going to touch on what the MLS is and how a home seller will hire a real estate agent, and use the power of the MLS and the power of the internet,to get your home sold.

And what I’m going to really touch on and focus on is that one real estate agent, or one real estate company, is the exact same as everyone else because everyone uses the same system.

So let’s start from the beginning. When you call up a real estate agent to hire them, to get your home listed on the internet, that real estate agent is going to go to one website.

The local MLS. For example, around the Houston area, that’s through the Houston Association of Realtors. Or let’s say anywhere in the Dallas Fort Worth, or any of those surrounding counties up in north Texas, that’s going to be the north Texas real estate information system. 

And the real estate agents in that local area we’ll put in their clients property information into the website. They’re going to upload the photos. They’re going to write the description, and they’re going to make sure everything is complete. 

And then they’re going to press the button. And as soon as it becomes active, It’s going to start to distribute to all the websites.

So let’s back up. First is the local MLS. Once you’re a real estate agent, you have the same website as everybody else. You could be from a big brand name broker with a national presence name. Or a one person real estate where you’re just a one-person agent. Everyone uses the same MLS. 

Listing and Online Distribution

Now the second thing is distribution. Once you click the button and it goes active it’s going to distribute to all the websites now. Guess what, that is the exact same as well. From a big national real estate office to a one person office, the distribution of the property listing to the thousands of websites out there is the exact same.

Sellers Pay a Commission to Buyer’s Agents

The last point about the MLS and this is very important. When you hire a real estate agent, you are also making a commitment to pay a commission to a buyer’s agent. So if a buyer’s agent is representing the actual buyer who buys your home, as a home seller, you’ll be paying that buyer’s agent a commission.

Historically, this business model has been very successful in being able to sell their home by paying a buyer’s agent, the finder’s fee or the marketing expense. New business models is now the listing agent. 

Because the MLS is such a very simple process that’s really controlled by a data entry form. As well as the distribution that we just talked about. Many listing agents are now deciding to charge their sellers less in fees to do the work. And so there’s these new business models that are popping up.

This is something for you, as a home seller, that you should be considering and what it is that you get for your money. Hopefully that this provided some insights and some things to think about. And if there’s ever any questions at all, if you’re thinking about listing your home and you just want to talk about it, feel free to reach out to me and I’m here to help you in any way I can. Thanks again.