Author: Mayur Arora

One Flat Fee has been offers discount Realtor® and For Sale By Owner (FSBO) services, led by One Flat Fee founder Mayur Arora. “This is an extremely exciting and historic period for home sellers,” says Arora. “There are huge savings to be had from using a service such as One Flat Fee rather than using the old and traditional Realtor selling model. The savings, combined with the added transparency and control that sellers have when conducting transactions themselves, will significantly affect the future of property exchange in the coming years. We hope to expand across the country shortly after our launch.”

This post is to review the packages offered specifically by One Flat Fee.

Package 1:

• List your home on MLS®
• Promote on oneflatfee.ca
• Advertise on the Internet
• Forward title of your property
• Free market evaluation
• Forward prospective buyers

Optional:

• Add signage ($99)
• Add professionally taken pictures and up to 8 virtual tours ($149)
• Add the use of a lock box ($99)

Price: $1499 CAD (Lower Mainland) or $649.99 (Surrounding Area)

Package 2:

• List your home on MLS®
• Promote on oneflatfee.ca
• Advertise on the Internet
• Forward title of your property
• Free market evaluation
• Forward prospective buyers
• Manage your appointments

Optional:

• Add signage ($99)
• Add professionally taken pictures and up to 8 virtual tours ($149)
• Add the use of a lock box ($99)

Price: $849.99 CAD (Lower Mainland) or $999.99 (Surrounding Area)

Package 3:

• List your home on MLS®
• Promote on oneflatfee.ca
• Advertise on the Internet
• Forward title of your property
• Free market evaluation
• Forward prospective buyers
• Manage your appointments
• Present offers ‘til sold
• Handle Paperwork
• Buying & selling consultation
• Manage property showings
• Subject removal
• Legal coordination
• Sale completion
• Pay when you sell

Optional:

• Add signage ($99)
• Add professionally taken pictures and up to 8 virtual tours ($149)
• Add the use of a lock box ($99)

Flat Fee Price: $3499.99 CAD

Our Flat Fee MLS® listing service is a welcomed alternative to the stale, traditional way of selling your home with a high-priced, commissioned Realtor®. The One Flat Fee approach lets you sell your property without a Realtor®, saving you thousands of dollars by allowing you to choose the services you want. Unlike other flat fee MLS® listing sites, One Flat Fee will also push your MLS® listing for Realtors® to see on MLXchange® and for the public to see on realtor.ca, a critical step to increase the profile of your property, exposing it to 75% more buyers.

We specialize in providing Flat Fee MLS listings for homes for sale by owner in Vancouver, BC, throughout the lower mainland and the remote regions of British Columbia.

Because of recent clarifications within the real estate industry, more and more people in the lower mainland are flocking to the Discount realtor® method of selling their homes.

While traditional Realtors® often make a big show of open houses and talk of “how it’s been done before”, discount realtors® are ahead of the curve, omitting high commissions and pricing homes accordingly in order to make a successful sale. Discount realtors® are used to dealing in higher volume than traditional realtors® and often have specific procedures in place to help ensure the sale of your home.

Because of sites like MLS®, which now allow postings from For Sale By Owner home sellers via services like One Flat Fee’s discount real estate services, it is now easier to research, buy, and sell homes than ever before. Traditional real estate commissions should be lowered given the existence of these new, online avenues available to help home sales, but traditional Realtors® are often stuck in a traditional mind set… and their commissions have remained at the same high levels.

This old fashioned and costly method of buying and selling homes has provided the opportunity for discount Realtors® to step up – in fact, BC Business recently reported on this very phenomenon, with a quote stating that full service discount Realtors® will be the next seismic shift within the real estate industry – in other words, discount Realtors® are the wave of the future.

The question of whether discount Realtors® will last is only a question of service. If consumers find value in the services that a discount Realtor® is able to offer, it indicates that discount realty will, in fact, have a long life. One of the key things that sets discount Realtors® apart is the fact that discount Realtors® like One Flat Fee offer services a la cart, including MLS® postings, professional photography, and cash back deals, giving everyone in the process an advantage. Compared to paying one Realtor® a high commission, consumers definitely find value in measurable services like what a discount Realtor® can offer.

One Flat Fee is a member of the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver and as a result has all the same benefits of a traditional Realtor® (MLS® postings, MLXchange®, realtor.ca, etc…); however, because of the structure of discount Realtors® like One Flat Fee, many times more sales can be closed, costing the home seller much less.

Discount realty is an exciting alternative to the stale, traditional commission structure, providing discount Realtors®, home sellers, and home buyers far more freedom. Because Realtors® must follow the consumers to continue maintaining a profitable living, discount Realtors® have the benefit in the long run, providing measurable services at lower prices. Lower mainland real estate sales, including Downtown Vancouver, Kerrisdale, Surrey, and Richmond have all demonstrated that the consumer demand is apparent for these discount real estate services.

It’s been apparent for quite some time that the real estate industry is changing, and now that consumer demand has risen for reasonably priced, measurable services, discount Realtors® have stepped up to provide the consumers with what they want.

You’re searching for your next real estate purchase, and maybe it’s your first home. You want to consider every option, but first, start with the basics: do you go with a condominium or a house? There are positives and negatives to both options; either a condo or a house could be a viable choice for your lifestyle, depending on what you choose to focus on.

When you purchase a condo, you can benefit from how little maintenance is involved. You don’t need to worry about mowing the lawn, pulling the weeds from the garden, replacing the roof, or fixing your water heater. If you purchase a condo on a higher floor, you may experience peace of mind related to security. Additionally, you may experience other perks, like a rooftop patio, gym, or workshop.

While you save on maintenance duties when you purchase a condo, you must pay a condo fee or monthly charge, potentially ranging from $100/month to over $1000 per month. This fee helps to provide all the services that you don’t have to take care of as a condo owner. This can include water, hot water, grounds maintenance, and property management. This fee can also go towards a contingency fund and specialty options.

If you plan to purchase a condo, a vital step is finding out exactly what services are covered by the condo fee. You will want to know if you will be paying for services that you’re not interested in or and you will need to take the condo fee under consideration when thinking about mortgage payments. You will also want to check out how much money is in the reserve fund. If it is low and major repairs have recently been made, that may be an okay situation, but if the fund is low due to mismanagement, you may want to steer clear of that situation.

In terms of purchasing a house, you will be spared from any monthly fees; however, your responsibility will include the maintenance of all those things that are typically taken care of by that fee. You will need to fix your own roof if it leaks (or at least arrange for the repair), you need to ensure your grass and garden are maintained, and that your property is appropriate managed and kept up.

While owning a house is typically more work than owning a condo, you also have more control over each decision you make. You may want to do a quick-fix on an issue to wait for the perfect time to do a permanent repair, or you may want to paint your door red, while in a condo, you wouldn’t have the option to change exterior paint colours. Owning a house enables you to make major renovations without approvals and gives you the option to be in control of each and every decision.

An advantage of house ownership is the potential to make a better investment. For instance, if you own a condo, you may not be able to make the major repairs necessary to complete improvements that increase the value enough to make a large profit if you decide to sell a few years later. There are simply not as many improvement options when you are living in a more stringently controlled dwelling like a condo, like the ability to add a garage or impressive landscaping. That said, a condo could provide an easier lifestyle, with less stress and fewer worries as a result of major renovations and repairs.

Whatever your purchase, remember that when you make your choice, either option is part of your personal preference – there is no right answer, only a right answer for YOU.