Florida Flat Fee MLS In 1998
Flat fee MLS in 1998 offered a little different service when Realty-Mart America got started in South Florida. Back then flat fee MLS was not very well known and when someone found us on the Internet they immediately thought it was a scam. If it sounds to good to be true it must be, right!
We started Realty-Mart America as a discount real estate company covering Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties. At that time we were the only local Florida flat fee MLS broker and just one of about five in the country. Our service was much different then as well. We provided many more services because we only listed properties in our immediate area. So, we would actually come out to the property and take photos, provide a yard sign and write ads which we would post to about a dozen for sale by owner websites.
After about a year of this type of service we decided to branch out and offer our Florida flat fee MLS home listing service in Jacksonville, Orlando, Tampa, Sarasota, Melbourne, Tallahassee, Naples, and Pensacola. So, we had to change our level of service because there was no way we could drive to Pensacola to list a property and collect just $275. Actually, the listing fee in 1998 was $475. It was still not practical to drive that distance to take photos and help the client with the paperwork. So we changed the entire program.
In late 2000 Realty-Mart America was listing real estate on a flat fee basis in 25 Florida counties and we were strictly an online listing service. No additional services like the by owner for sale yard sign and Internet promotions on by-owner sites. Business was getting better and better with our new marketing approach. Savvy property owners could easily list their real estate online and have it on the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) within 24 hours, all for just $250. Investors, builders and property developers took notice and become a great source of revenue for Realty-Mart America beginning in early 2002.
The big real estate boom had us jumping by early 2004 through 2007. During that period we were listing about 50 properties a week consistently. In 2003 we expanded once again in Atlanta Georgia and Alabama. We started to notice a lot of competitors by 2004 and I really don’t know where they came from. They were not licensed brokers but rather Internet marketers that started referral companies. Their websites started poping up everywhere but it didn’t affect our business at all. But in early 2008 we started to see a trend. It was like we woke up one morning in February, 2008 and the party was over. Where are all the new listings? Is our website down? People stopped listing! People stopped calling! Realtors stopped showing property! It was a little scary. We could see right then that something big and bad was coming.
I hope it ends soon.
