This question is perhaps a question that hundreds of thousands of British Columbians would want the answer to be “Yes”. Well in reality, the answer is not that simple. While the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) changed its rules in March 2010 to appease the Competition Bureau the changes were just enough to allow Real Estate agents to break up the services and it gave the sellers the choice to pick and choose the services they want from the Realtor®. Most, in fact almost all Realtors® have not changed their ways and continue in the traditional way. Some forward thinking Realtors® and brokerages such as Oneflatfee.ca have used this opportunity and taken full advantage of the new rules and made a mark for themselves.

Brokerages such as ours, “Oneflatfee” can provide sellers a way to get on the all-important MLS® and get you a private listing. The Real Estate Board and the Real Estate Council do have certain parameters that the Realtors ® have to adhere to. One such rule is that only a Realtor ® can list on the MLS ® and no one from the public can have their name shown directly to the public. A Realtor ® is still responsible for the MLS ® listing and a flat fee agent can list the property and whilst the seller has most of the control the ultimate responsibility for this FSBO (For Sale by owner listing) remains the Realtor’s.

The seller can list their property using a flat fee MLS ®brokerage / flat fee MLS® Realtor® in BC and all they have to do is pay an upfront fee. It is extremely important to know that this company is from BC and not from Ontario or Quebec because a listing done from out of province will not show up for the local agents to see.

For Sale by Owner listings have become a new trend and the sellers are saving thousands and thousands in commissions. For example a $ 650,000 home sale will save the owner as $10,877. This is a huge amount of money to save and best of all; the buyer’s agent does not have anything against this property as this system pays out the buyer’s agent what they would have made in the traditional way. The seller is playing on a level playing field unlike One Percent Realty which offers only a 0.5% commission which could discourage the buyer’s agents (not that we promote that or are even remotely suggesting that, an ethical agent will still show all properties.)

Oneflatfee.ca has sold over $ 130 million in properties in slightly over 2 years and is hugely successful with rave reviews. We list properties all over British Columbia and are only a phone call/email away.