Several years ago a friend of mine living in California was complaining about how much they had to pay a real estate agent when they were tyring to sell a house in California. The house was about 1600 square feet and they were asking about $900,000 and while they may seem like a lot to get for a house for those that live outside of California but to my friends they only had about $75,000 equity in the house. So if they were to pay a traditional real estate fee of 6% then they would pay $54,000 to sell a house that they had just bought about 3 years earlier. I understand why there were distraught. That is all of their equity pretty much gone after they pay for a few odds and ends to fix it up and also moving expenses to the next house.
My friend mubles to me on the phone one time that it would be great to have a discount real estate agent. I told him that it was not that great - you may save 1% because the agents and brokers split the pot so to speak so the agent really isn't making that much and to go ahead and cut it another percentage point.
Of course I brought up the mls listing service and laid out the details. You get the same mls listing, you put up the lock box and then let the other agents show your house. When they finally bring you a buyer you give that agent 3%. This means that you save around 3 to 4% depending on what your inital contract was for.
Now 3% of 9,000,000 starts to add up - well it adds up to around $27,000 that they saved. They got their home listed and right away the traffic started and within about 2 months their were actually 3 contracts submitted. 1 was for full price on the home.
In my humble opinion the flat rate service is second to none for those that want to save a ton of money when they sell the home. Forget about discount real estate agents in California. List it in the mls for around $350 and then sit back and wait for a buyer (and that by the way that is most likely is exactly what your listing agent would have done)