We are here to help!  Chat is the fastest way to get a question answered, but we also provide support during business hours by email and phone.

HomeLister is the Do It Yourself version of a real estate agent where you get to decide whether you want a little support or a lot. We have taken all the tools of an agent and automated them and made them available to you. We can help you list your home on MLS, create a strategic marketing plan, provide competitive market pricing, professional photography, staging, signs and a lock box. We even have much more customized services.  You get to pick what level package is right for you. All of these packages will save you thousands of dollars in traditional real estate fees.

With HomeLister, you create your MLS listing completely online then manage the sale of your home through our push-button simple dashboard on your phone or computer. And we are here to support you every step of the way. Homelister will help you sell your home and save you a lot of money. We also pride ourselves on excellent customer service. Our goal is very happy homesellers.

Yes! We have a whole help center to answer all your questions about creating listings, open houses, dealing with customers, etc.  You can visit our help center at <a href="http://help.homelister.com">HomeLister Help Center</a>.

We don't exclude any buyers from our listing agreement. If your home sells while you are listed with us, the fee is due. The fee is for the work of listing your home, which we do, and is only due at closing when you sell. We list your home on over a hundred websites and don't track where buyers come from as they are all able to contact you directly.  If you believe that a buyer who previously saw the home may make an offer, we advise you to wait to list the home as we can not exempt them from the fee.

No, you may not list a home that is already under contract to show for backups.  There is no way to enter a home under contract in the MLS and to list a home that is under contract as Active would be a violation.

No, it is not allowed to mark a listing in the MLS as For Sale By Owner.  Only an agent can post in the MLS and that is what we do for and we must be your listing agent in order to do that. However, We are a limited services brokerage where you select a flat fee package and talk to buyers directly and we then provide as much or as little help as you need.  On public websites, HomeLister will be shown as your listing agent by the MLS. And when agents and buyers call you, you can say that you are using a limited services agency and talking to buyers directly.

We recommend giving 10-14 days to fully set up a premium or platinum listing with photos, yard sign, open house signs and all other aspects.  Depending on the day of the week, it can be done quicker, just ask us.  Photography typically takes 2-3 days to set up, but at the busiest times of the year can take a few extra days depending upon weather and your schedule..

Yes, you may list multiple properties for sale, but you may only have 1 property with a fee due at closing.  If you sell a property with us and pay the fee at closing, then you may list another with the fee due at closing.  If you wish to list multiple properties at a time, after the first listing, the rest must have the fee paid upfront. If you list one property with us and cancel it and then list another, the second property must have the fee paid upfront.

The basic listing fee is paid at closing for most home sales. There are a few exceptions if there are circumstances that make the listing more difficult to sell than a typical home. Some examples include: sale listings that are tenant occupied, homes with known title issues, a second listing before the first is sold, condo conversions not yet complete, properties zoned as commercial, properties with pending evictions, etc. Rental listings are also paid upfront as there is no closing to track. If you have questions about whether your property would fall into this category, please chat with us.

Yes, you can use HomeLister to list land or lots for sale.

We can not list a property that is currently attached to a bankruptcy.  We are not able to list properties that require court documentation and approvals.

You would have to cancel your listing with us in order to have someone else list it. You may cancel at any time in writing. There is a $99 cancellation fee to cancel the listing within the first 14 days of being listed and no cancellation fee after 14 days.  You will still owe the fee if you sell your home within 30 days of cancelling and you have not listed it with another broker.

In general we allow you to make the changes you need to your listing.   Please take care in making the changes that you want the first time.  Accounts that continuously make changes to their listings such as changing descriptions, photos or anything else will be limited to one set of changes per week, at the discretion of the brokerage team.  This is not an effective sales tactic. Changing the description, order of photos or anything else in a listing will not return you to the top of the search results on any real estate website and continuously making changes to a listing is a negative signal to buyers. We also will not make price changes that are not substantive. Price changes must be $4500 or more.  Price changes do not move your listing up the list of results and small changes of for example $1000 do not help you sell your home.

Basics

MLS stands for Multiple Listing Service (or Multi List in some places).  This the backend database that real estate agents use to create and share home listings.  It is also what most search sites use to get their listings (Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, HomeFinder, Re/Max, Coldwell Banker, Redfin, HomeSnap etc).  Having your home listed on the MLS is still a critical part of selling a home as 92% of all homes are still sold through the MLS.  It also gives you the widest distribution of your home listing.

Yes, every listing on HomeLister is entered into your local MLS.

Only real estate agents and brokers are allowed to put listings in the MLS.  HomeLister is both a broker and a registered member of the MLS.

In Brooklyn, HomeLister utilizes REBNY/RLS which covers all of NYC. We do not list on Brooklyn MLS which has a large per transaction listing fee.

Yes, we do list on FMLS and if you are in the FMLS service area, it is required for you to list on FMLS which has an additional fee beyond our fee. Here is how it works. Here are the additional fees if you list on FMLS. FMLS charges a 0.12% commission when the home sells. That is 0.0012 x the sales price. You must agree to pay this to be listed in FMLS. This fee goes to FMLS and not to HomeLister. FMLS also carries a cancellation fee if you cancel the listing. A cancellation fee of $35 is paid upfront and credited back against the FMLS commission at the time of closing. HomeLister charges an additional $199 fee to manually maintain a second listing. This is also paid upfront. This is a discount to our normal fee of $299 for a second MLS listing. For a $350,000 home, here is what the additional charges for FMLS would look like. Pay now = $199 +$35 = $234 Due at closing = [$350,000 x .0012] = $420 Credited back at closing: $35 cancellation fee Total additional fees at closing = $420 - $35 = $485.

The following counties require listings to be placed in FMLS:  Barrow, Bartow, Cherokee, Chattooga, Cobb, Dawson, DeKalb, Douglas, Floyd, Forsyth, Fulton, Gordon, Gwinnett, Hall, Haralson, Jackson, Lumpkin, Newton, Paulding, Pickens, Polk, Rockdale and Walton.

Yes, HomeLister is the only complete listing platform and you can complete your listing entirely online in one session.  You can also come back later and finish any listing, picking up right where you left off.  Your listing saves every time you hit the Next button.

The listing will stay in the MLS for 6 months or until the house sells.  At the end of 6 months, you may renew your listing without any additional fees.

In the top right corner of the page, you can click a button that says, "List a Home". This will ask you to enter an address and then walk you through the process of entering all the necessary information. You can complete the entire listing right on the website.

Most people are able to create a listing in about 20 minutes if they have everything ready.

Once the listing agreement is signed, your listing is reviewed by a broker and submitted for a preliminary title check.  If the broker has questions about the listing, they will reach out to you by email.  If the listing requires no further information it takes up to 2 business days to become live on the MLS. After it is live on the MLS, the speed it gets to other websites depends upon those websites and how fast they are able to process it. Many sites will have the listing live within 24 hours (Realtor.com is often less than 4 hours), but most say that it can take up to 72 hours.  Changes to listings after the listing is live take up to 1 business day.

Unfortunately at this time we cannot support the sale of homes sold through a short sale.

Yes, you may.  The rules on how to list this type of property vary from MLS to MLS and some will require it be listed as an investment.  Unconverted condo listings must be paid upfront.

Yes, we can list a home that way, however it does make it more difficult to sell the property and some sites will not display it.  For that reason if you wish to list a home this way, the listing fee must be paid upfront.

Unfortunately at this time we do not.  You must own the land and have a permanent foundation on the home in order to list through HomeLister.

We can not list the property until it is out of probate.

Yes, you may list a property with a tenant if they are willing to show the home.  The listing fee for properties with tenants must be paid upfront instead of contingent on sale.  We recommend you get written permission to show the home before listing with us. The most common issue with homes with tenants is that they will not accommodate showings.

Yes, we can list the property for you.  The listing fee must be paid upfront if you are listing the property for a client and the owner of the property must be listed as the titleholder.

No, we do not list properties as coming soon at this time.

The property must be available to show within 24 hours of going live on the MLS. If your home is not ready to show, you will need to select a future Publish date.

Yes, you may provide your own photos or take advantage of our professional photography service.  You may not use photos used by a previous agent without their written permission even if you own the photos, per MLS rules.   You may only use original photos that you have taken or have written permission to use. You may not use screen shots of photos, thumbnails of photos, google maps photos or images, photos with yard signs or other contact information in them, photos with writing on them, or photos with watermarks on them.

We allow as many photos as your MLS allows, up to 50 photos.  That can range from 20-50 photos depending on the MLS.

We can only list properties as they show in public records. We can list according to the title information and tax information that is publicly recorded. If square footage information is incorrect in public records, you can have an appraiser measure the home and provide us with the report that we can submit to override public records. If you are being taxed on 2000 SF we can not list it as 4000 SF. If title is incorrect, you may provide us with the paperwork given to title to correct the deed for us to list the home.

Yes, you can relist a home that has been cancelled to get it back on the market. There is a $69 relisting fee for the first relisting of a cancelled listing. Once a home listing is cancelled twice, it may be relisted again by paying the full listing fee upfront.



Create Listing

We do not publicly publish your contact information.  The MLS will contain your direct contact information and only be accessible to agents that have access to the MLS.  Public inquiries will come through HomeLister and will be redirected to your phone and email contacts so that you may answer them directly.  

You can either show your home yourself, or use a lockbox to allow buyer’s agents to show your home. 

Yes, a buyer's broker's best interest is to sell a home to their client. If your home is the one that fits what their client is looking for, that is what they will show. Since you are offering a commission to a buyer's broker, your house is no different than one listed by a traditional broker. If you are offering below 2% to a buyer's broker, you may get fewer agent showings or they may work out a deal with the buyer or you to compensate them but still get you a price that you want. However, listing under 2% buyer's agent commission may also reduce the number of agents that push the home to their clients and reduce the number of inquiries that you receive.

When you list with HomeLister, we are your limited services broker and listed as your broker in the MLS. It is not allowed for other brokers to contact you soliciting your business.  To further prevent these calls, you can choose to have only our contact information listed. When our contact information is listed, they will contact us directly and their phone call or email will be forwarded directly to your phone or email for you to respond directly.

HomeLister has a free app called the HomeLister Live Tours App that lets you easily conduct live virtual showings with anyone.   Get more information on the app on the app page here: <a href="https://www.homelister.com/homelisterlivetoursapp">https://www.homelister.com/homelisterlivetoursapp</a>

For complete instructions on how to use the app, see our <a href="http://insights.homelister.com/insights//homelister-app-instructions">recent blog post here</a>

Open Houses & Showings

Everywhere.  The reason we built HomeLister was to make sure that your listing gets the exact same amount of marketing and exposure, if not more, than if it was listed with a traditional agent.  We list your home in the MLS, Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Yahoo Real Estate, Homefinder, and hundreds more sites. We also have additional marketing services that let you design a full marketing plan for your home through online ad campaigns, which even most real estate agents won't do.

Your listing will also be shown on Zillow, Trulia, Realtor.com, Homes. Com, Nestigator, Relola, broker sites, and many other public websites.

No, we do not post on Craigslist.  However, we provide you with a link to your listing that you are able to post anywhere.

Depending on which package you choose, we will directly ship you the lock box and sign. If your package includes a professional wooden For Sale sign the installation would also be included.

Yes, you can add a professional beautiful home flyer to any listing, along with any other open house needs.

Yes, where available for syndication, we publish our listings to international listing sites such as Juwai, Sodichan, Hfunso, Waijule and others.

We can note your preference in the MLS, however, in order to list with us you are required to be able to accept showing requests by both email and phone call.  It is acceptable to accept voicemails and return them.  Some websites work by email requests only and many MLSs require a showing to be able to be scheduled by phone in order to make use of the MLS services.

It typically 2-5 business days for the yard sign to be installed after the listing is live in the MLS.

Our listings show on Zillow as agent listed as we your listing agent in order to list you in the MLS.

Marketing My Home

We recommend offering 2.5% to buyer's brokers.  

No matter where you list your home, you are never under any obligation to accept any offer from anyone.

HomeLister believes that the 3% commission that seller's agents typically take is outdated and no longer necessary. With HomeLister, you pick your package and pay only for the services that you selected. There are no additional hidden fees or commissions. If you selected the basic listing package, you pay HomeLister only the package fee when you sell.

It is free to create your listing and the basic listing package fee is paid only when you sell. You can get as little help or as much help as you like throughout the sale and we have packages that provide full management. For packages with hard costs such as photography, there is a small upfront charge. Here is a link to our packages.  <a href=https://www.homelister.com/pricing-packages>https://www.HomeLister.com/pricing-packages</a>

Commissions are negotiable and there is no required amount, however most real estate agents take a 5-6% commission on the sale of a home and give half of that 6% to the buyer's broker. If the buyer doesn't have a broker, they usually get to keep the entire 6%, or some reduced amount like 5%.

HomeLister takes no commission except the package amount that you have selected upfront. You are paying only for the actual services that you used. You also get to decide what commission you are willing to pay to a buyer's broker if your buyer has a broker. If your buyer doesn't have a broker, you pay nothing additional at closing.

The fee we charge is for the work of listing your home in the MLS and maintaining the listing.  It is due no matter who you sell to.  We post the home on over 100 websites, instruct buyers to contact you directly and do not track where your buyers come from.  Our fee is due when you sign a contract to lease or sell the home no matter who you sell to, including family members and neighbors.  If you believe that a buyer may making an offer and you want to avoid the fee, we advise you to wait to see if the buyer makes an offer before listing with us.  Once listed, the fee will be due when you sign the contract.

The fee for our listing is due whether you rent or sell the home while listed.  If you decide to rent it out and haven't yet found a renter, we can convert your listing to a rental listing on the MLS.

The MLS has a minimum buyer's broker commission that you must select, of 1%. You control whether you pay this or not by whether or not you accept an offer from an agent. If what you want is to have no brokers involved in your sale, we highly recommend to simply choose a low commission rate, such as 1%, and then not accept any offers that do not meet your minimum financial goals. For example, if you create a listing for a home for $250,000 and list a 1% commission. Then you receive an offer for $250,000 from a buyer without a broker, and an offer for $250,000 from a buyer with a broker. You would select the offer from the buyer without the broker. However, if the broker gave you a buyer's offer of $260,000 with a 1% commission, you might consider taking the broker's offer because the net price is $257,400 after the commission is paid, which is more than the $250,000 offer. Even with these two offers, if you still prefer to sell to someone without a broker, you can still accept the $250,000 with no broker, in which case there is no buyer's broker's commission.

A lot of companies do this as a sales tactic.  There are a lot of online pricing tools you can take advantage of to get an estimate of how your home will price.  One of the reasons that we are able to offer the services we do at such an economical price point is that we do not have our brokerage team do work unless you are actually signed up for service.  The reason that many agents need to charge so much money is that they spend so much of their time doing work for people who won't end up using their services.  This is how we keep our prices fair is to only do that work when it is part of a signed up package.

All listings receive 1 complimentary temporary withdraw and relist. A temporary withdrawl from the MLS takes your home off the market, but does not reset Days on Market. After the first temporary withdrawl, all further temporary withdrawls are $49.

Pricing & Commissions

Yes, you can find a step by step instructional guide <a href="http://insights.homelister.com/insights//homelister-app-instructions">here</a>.

HomeLister App

Yes, we provide you with the disclosure forms that you are required to provide to buyers.  

You do not pay HomeLister for this, but yes, many states require all sellers to provide a Natural Hazard Disclosure Report to buyers in order to sell.  A typical fee for this report would be $100 to a title company, but it can vary.  The fee for this report is only paid if you close, and can be paid out of closing funds.

HomeLister replaces the real estate agent, but we do not provide legal services.  In many states, the real estate agent handles all aspects of the contract and an attorney is not involved.  If you are in a state where an attorney writes the contracts, you may use the attorney of your choice.  The general rule is that if you would use an attorney when using a full 6% agent, you would still use an attorney when using HomeLister.

All agent signature requests on basic listings have a 1 day turnaround time (Signatures requested on Sundays will be processed on Mondays).  Please send signature requests to offers@homelister.com.

Yes, when you select a package that includes offer review and closing management this includes all of the same paperwork that a traditional agent would do from offers through closing.

We review your top 3 offers with you and handle the counter offer process.  If your home falls out of escrow and you have new offers to review, we'll handle the offers and paperwork for up to 2 escrows under the service plans.  If you fall out of escrow twice or more, or would like more than your top 3 offers reviewed, there are extra fees.

Just like with a full service agent, you would use either a real estate attorney or a title company as your escrow and closing agent.  You choose the closing agent of your choice.

If your escrow agent requests you to get documents from 3rd parties, you are responsible to make the request of 3rd party companies for any documents needed for sale.  Examples include HOA rules and regulations or a mortgage payoff statement.

No, if a home falls out of escrow we return it to an Active listing and the original fee is still due at closing when you do sell. If your home falls out of escrow more than 3 times (this is rare), this indicates there is something wrong with the property that keeps the contracts from completing and we will ask you to pay the fee upfront instead of at closing to continue with the listing.

Contracts & Disclosures

The number one reason homes don't sell is that they are priced too high.  However, it is rare that homes sell for less than they are worth, even if they are priced low to begin with.  A low listing price brings more potential buyers through the door and makes it more likely to start a bidding war.  For that reason, we always recommend listing homes at about 1-2% less than comparable homes in the area.  Even if you list low, you are never obligated to accept an offer, even if it is what you asked.  Two other major reasons that homes don't sell is if the seller is not responsive enough to buyers and not available for enough showings, or, if there is a problem on the property that the seller won't correct and hasn't reflected in the list price.

One of the reasons that HomeLister is able to provide savings for homesellers is that we do not work in person with our sellers. Our customer service team is available by phone, email and chat and our brokers and selling team are available by phone and email.

At any point you can decide that you want a full service agent.  You can ask us to help find you the best agent in your area, or send us the name of an agent you want to use and we'll take care of the rest.

Our listing agreement is for 6 months. You may cancel at any time after 14 days for no fee if you have not accepted an offer, or if you need more time you may extend at the end of 6 months for no additional fee. There is a $99 fee to cancel within 14 days of the listing being published in the MLS. If you decide to cancel, the listing fee is still due if you sell or rent within 30 days of cancelling unless you have relisted with another agent who is due the fee on the transaction.

Selling My Home

New Jersey requires a visual inspection of the property before an agent can list a property. Because of this there will be an additional required service with a cost of $150 for the visual inspection. Average time to complete the inspection is currently about 4 business days.

North Carolina requires us to have an appraiser measure the square footage of your home before listing. NC requires us to hire a licensed professional such as an appraiser to measure the square footage of your home before listing it in the MLS. Because of this there will be an additional required service. Average time to complete measuring is currently about 5 business days. The measuring service costs $125 for up to 1999 SF, $175 for 2000-3999 SF, and $250 for 4000 SF and above.