TheFlatRate.com was founded on the idea that buying and selling real estate has changed dramatically over the past few decades.  No longer do Realtors hold the keys to the kingdom so to speak.  Consumers have the ability to find homes on their own on literally thousands of websites.  We see the Realtor’s job as changing.  If we don’t need to spend thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and countless hours marketing your property, you should benefit from that. Even though no two real estate transactions are exactly the same, nearly all properties are handled in the same way. Instead of offering independent Realtors who are simply affiliated (not employed) by brokerages that are responsible for your home sale from start to finish, we utilize a division of labor.  Our listing agents do what they do best – consult and negotiate.  Our assistants do most of the legwork and our transaction managers handle the administration.  We also have in-house media and marketing under one roof so our business operates more like – a business not a one man show.

Because of our unique business model, we have streamlined operations and expenses, and developed a system that allows you to utilize all or only some of our services.  For the do-it-yourselfer, we have services for you at a considerable savings. For the completely hands-off seller, we have packages for you – also at considerable savings.  As no two transactions are alike – neither are any two sellers.  We provide a platform from which you can choose how we can best serve you, all at tremendous savings over traditional real estate brokers.

What services we provide depends on what you choose. If you choose our Listing and Contract to Close packages, you will receive every service that 99% of the Realtors out there will offer (possibly more) for $2,490 (plus a buyer agent co-op if applicable).

What makes us different is that we also offer our services à la carte (and at fixed rates).  If you do not want to hire us to provide every service required to go from pre-listing evaluation to settlement, and you don’t mind doing some of the work yourself, we’re happy to supplement your talents with or own services, saving you money along the way.

We can offer market services and well below market pricing for three main reasons. The first is our Pay As You Go business model.  If you haven’t read our “Why Traditional Realtors Charge So Much” section, you should check it out.  With our model, we charge a fee whenever we provide a service like most other service professionals – accountants, attorneys, and consultants.  We don’t assume any risk for clients who require hours and hours of services with no guarantee of payment like traditional Realtors do. Reduced risk means reduced fees.

The second aspect to our business model that makes us unique is that we don’t operate like a typical real estate agency.  We utilize a division of labor allowing for the highest and best use of each employee’s talents.  No one person is equipped to be an expert in negotiation, analysis, media creation, marketing, transaction management, construction, law, and much more.  Our agents provide consultation and negotiation services;  our assistants provide efficient administrative services;  our media and marketing team does nothing but advertise your property; and our transaction managers provide .. well, transaction management services. We operate as an efficient team coordinating all of the necessary components and allowing us to charge less the agencies that are far less streamlined.

The final reason we are able to reduce our fees is by reducing our overhead.  We are a cloud based brokerage. This means we don’t operate a dozen physical locations in each city.  We operate one administrative office in Hunt Valley Maryland and everyone else works remotely.  This allows us to offer you the best possible service at the lowest possible price.

The average home in Maryland sells for about $325,000. If you purchase our Listing and Contract to Close packages, your listing fees will be $2,590.  If there is a buyer’s agent involved (and you have offered a buyer’s agent co-op fee – typically around 2.5%) then your total brokerage fees will be $10,615. If you had hired a typical Realtor at 5% plus $495, your total brokerage fees would be $16,745.  That’s a savings of over $6,000 with no difference in services provided.  If you find the buyer yourself, then you save the 2.5% buyer agent co-op and your total savings jump to over $14,000 !!  You can save even more if you want to just list the property and use our services à la carte.  Please take a look at our savings calculator below to see exactly how much you can save.

That depends.  If you purchase our packages, then no, we do all the work a typical Realtor would perform from pre-listing to settlement.  If you utilize our services à la carte, then you would be doing some of the work yourself, but your would be saving additional money by doing so.

Call us to discuss at 443-550-9200 if you still have questions and we’ll help you through the online registration process. Otherwise, just choose the services you want to start with and hit “add to cart.” Once you’re happy with your selections – checkout and our automated process will take you through the required steps. You will need to create an account prior to your initial order completion since we do create a legally binding brokerage agreement, but that is part of the automated process. Once registered, you will be directed to provide credit card / debit card information in order to make a payment for any services you may have chosen, or to make a deposit on our Contract to Close Package. Once you have signed up and paid, we will get to work right away.