User talk:Rktekt99

January 2011
Welcome to Wikipedia. Everyone is welcome to contribute to the encyclopedia, but when you add or change content, as you did to the article Flat-fee MLS, please cite a reliable source for the content of your edit. This helps maintain our policy of verifiability. Take a look at Citing sources for information about how to cite sources and the welcome page to learn more about contributing to this encyclopedia. Thank you. N2e (talk) 19:39, 8 January 2011 (UTC)

The issue quoted was a factual event that actually happened, but are private matters that cannot be discussed with specifics. The article is clearly biased - if Wikipedia wishes to allow one sided content, then this entire reference itself becomes invalid. I have been using a "Fee for Service" type listing in California for years, before this article which selectively specifically names this type of service "Flat Fee MLS" - the California Department of Real Estate calls this a "limited service" type contract, which is exactly what it is, and the public is being led to believe in this article that it is no different in outcome from other listing types. This is directly from the Winter Bulletin, 2010, California Department of Real Estate related to collection of advanced fees:

AB 1762 by Assembly member Mary Hayashi (D-Hayward) (Chapter 85) — Real estate; advance fees. Current law places restrictions on, and in some cases prohibits, a real estate licensee’s ability to collect advance fees for services that require a license. Real estate brokers wanting to collect advance fees must have their advance fee contract approved by the DRE prior to its use. This bill clarifies that the term “advance fee” does not include monies charged or collected for certain services requiring a license including security and screening fees and fees charged or collected for the purpose of advertising or earned for a specific service under a “limited service” contract.

Note that it is called a "limited service". The services offered where fees are collected in advance, in order to be legal require the entire service be performed - that is to say that the work (the entering of the information as advertisement in the MLS) is complete before being paid - therefore the client has no ongoing support. The article mentions some of this, but does not illustrate that, as many buyer clients are under contract with real estate "buyers" agents and cannot buy without paying that agent a fee if the sellers agent does not pay that fee as this program provides, then the marketability is impacted as an inequitable situation is created, i.e., buyer pays for a service they wouldn't pay for on a different property. Lenders recognize this and have refused at times short sale offers based on a lack of a property being openly marketed with this system - to edit this out of the article does the public a disservice when considering this type of listing, and makes the article biased and commercial in nature. There are many cases when an MLS Only, Fee for Service type listing is appropriate, but it is a limited service, and there are consequences and risks associated, and you are editing out one of the key risks in this current down market. You cannot quote "reliable sources" when matters are a client's private information, and as a real estate broker in California for 13 years - I am the reliable source. Rktekt99 (talk) 16:30, 9 January 2011 (UTC) Rktekt99