Ed Hardey Discusses Metrolist's New Flat Fee Pricing

Interviewer: Today were talking with Ed Hardey from Integrity Real Estate Group. He is the Vice Chair of the Metrolist Board and Chair for Metrolist Rules and Regulations. Ed, welcome to the show.

Ed Hardey: Thanks for having me.

Interviewer: Well, weve got some exciting news, you know, coming up here. Metrolist is going to go to a flat fee pricing for their brokers, correct?

Ed Hardey: Its correct, its something, its what the brokers had asked for, for a long time, and so were trying to be responsive and offer a predictable service for them.

Interviewer: Now, on the outside looking in, somebody would say, well arent you going to make less money?

Ed Hardey: You know, we honestly dont know, we budgeted to be revenue neutral.

Interviewer: Okay.

Ed Hardey: So just depending on the market situation.

Interviewer: So Metrolist can afford to go ahead and take this chance?

Ed Hardey: Correct, we booked a lot of members for that.

Interviewer: All right now what am I going to see or how is it going to be billed, tell me little bit about how its going to work.

Ed Hardey: Well the billing will be similar to which you have now. It could be through your broker, it could be through a direct bill, but its going to include most of the things that brokers use: that would be your searching, things like ListHub, contracts, they have Instanet, most of the service that you see today that you use, including even IDX professional, are going to be on that system.

Interviewer: And so, I was going to ask you about, because I, like a lot of brokers, have my own personal website. Ive got an IDX feed, people can search for listings and so forth, and thats been typically a $5 extra fee to me, but you are saying this is going to be, what, included?

Ed Hardey: Its actually included, but not only that, but you have two sites that are included with the IDX professional, and so that includes IDX professional, includes things like all your active listings, up to 10 photos, and its updated daily.

Interviewer: Okay, now here is the question for you, I wanted to know. Is it going to include refresh listings?

Ed Hardey: It will include anything thats active on the market.

Interviewer: Okay, but if I refresh a listing, you normally, thats a $10 charge. Thats probably not going to be included, I would assume?

Ed Hardey: Okay, on the actual fee there is a couple of things that arent, so if you want to use refresh you can, but you will be paying for that.

Interviewer: Okay.

Ed Hardey: Additionally things like ghost listing.

Interviewer: Right.

Ed Hardey: Youd also pay for that, just like you do today.

Interviewer: Talk a little bit more about the decision process and how you guys came around to this. I mean, obviously brokers said, I want a flat fee pricing, but there had to be more to it than that.

Ed Hardey: Well there is, theres you know, we get a lot of feedback from brokers, some looking for flat fee, some not wanting that.

Interviewer: Okay.

Ed Hardey: So youre trying to juggle and trying to what's best for the majority of members. Flat fee weve looked at it for a number of years, we decided, the board did, in December, to make that change, that the time was right.

Interviewer: Okay, and from December to March, it starts March 1st, correct?

Ed Hardey: March 1st, thats right.

Interviewer: And is there a certain amount of time you need there to get some billing things in place or whatever?

Ed Hardey: Well, we wanted to change the billing, but also just as far as the market cycle, to make sure that it was a smooth transition, that everyone was aware of it, and there were no surprises.

Interviewer: Right and so, in a case like me, Im going to call Metrolist, give them my credit card number. Im already on a direct bill pay. I dont pay through my broker and theyre going to keep that on file and theyre going to hit my credit card once a month.

Ed Hardey: Correct and just like they would do today so if you are, do you pay your bills directly?

Interviewer: Yeah.

Ed Hardey: Continue doing that, if you pay them through your broker, then continue doing that as well.

Interviewer: Thats going to be great for me because I normally rack up more than $38 in fees.

Ed Hardey: Awful lot of people do.

Interviewer: Thanks so much.

Ed Hardey: Thank you, Dan.

Interviewer: Appreciate you being here.

Ed Hardey: Thank you.

Posted on February 23, 2010 09:44:00 by Blog Author