I hesitate to even dignify this subject by addressing it since it is probably obvious to you, and since these companies as an aggregate don't register even a blip on the radar of real estate, but here goes . . .

You can count on it -- when the real estate market is hot, which it has been for the past couple of years, up pop a bunch of new companies offering to sell your house for 1%, 2%, 1.5%, flat fee, and do everything a full service broker does -- you know the pitch: Something For Nothing. Sounds great, doesn't it? Well, it ain't true, and here's what they don't want you to know:

The vast majority of real estate sales occur thru the efforts of cooperating brokers. Serious buyers are working with an agent to find them a house. If they don't know in the beginning, the buyer soon discovers that he is missing the really good listings, which sell immediately, if he depends upon the newspaper, internet, signs, etc. And this is not even considering the time he must invest chasing down listings his competition has known about for days. Half the commission that you, the seller, pay your agent is customarily given to those buyers' agents to induce them to show your home. In an active market such as we've been experiencing, that commission is generally 5%, with higher-end properties occasionally slightly less (economies of scale, you know); in a less active market 6% is the norm. A buyer's agent may work with those buyers for many months, showing them dozens of homes before they get to yours, and "previewing" hundreds. Each home they've seen helps sell yours, as they discover thru the looking process a) what they can expect for their money, b) what they want in a house and, therefore c) what represents a good value so that they know it when they get to yours. A good agent will also have used that time to qualify them with a lender and have their other ducks in line.

Now, consider Something For Nothing Real Estate, who offers to sell your home for 1.5% -- why would the buyer's agent, who has dragged his buyer hither and yon for months to listings offering to pay him 2.5% be interested in showing him yours for 1.5% or less (and that assumes he gets the entire commission which, of course, leaves NOTHING for Something For Nothing Real Estate)? Answer:  he wouldn't. Your only hope, therefore, is to attract a suitable buyer from the ads run by SFN -- heck, for 1.5% you may as well go For Sale By Owner, because you'll get essentially the same exposure -- very little. And that's the crux of the problem:  without the cooperation of the buyers' agents, you are very likely to miss the best buyer for your home -- the guy who would have paid a price that made up for the few extra dollars you spent listing your home with a broker who gives you access to every buyer. You will probably also be foregoing the expertise of an experienced agent when you need it most:  once offers are received.  Of course, with SFN you may not ever get to that stage.

There are other fundamental problems with the "something for nothing" approach, but the above is the most glaring. Give me a call at 310 613-1076 and we can discuss it in detail.