Saltwater Property Group believes that the days of paying a standard 6% commission for real estate transactions are over! That's right over! More and more these days real estate companies are changing their rigid commission structure because of the changing, highly competitive real estate industry.
There are a minority of companies, like Saltwater Property Group, that are beginning to offer Flex Commissions, where sellers pay from 3% to 6% depending on the level of service that they require from their real estate broker.
For instance, for a 3% commisson, companies can list your home in MLS, offer you full scale negotiating, list you on their company website, and put a sign in your yard with flyers. For many sellers, this is all that they require when listing their home and they are more than happy to list their home for only a 3% commission. With the Flex Commission, the more services that you require, such as Internet Advertising or Open Houses, the more you might be willing to pay on a real estate commission. But the important fact is that the seller is in control of the commisssion rate, not the real estate company, and that is good news for sellers!

There are many opportunities in the St. Augustine Real Estate market. However, buyers should be weary and ask their agent as many questions as possible. Ask for closed sales within the past 6 months or year, pending and contingent sales as well as competitve listings. Your agent should know or at least be able to provide you with past and current information so you don't overpay in a declining or stable market and can make reasonable, educated offers that have a higher percentage of being accepted. We as well as many other local real estate practicioners feel optimistic about spring time 2007, especially March. We have certainly felt the investor shakeout over the past year, however, we all knew it would not last forever. We are back to the normal real estate market of 4-5 years ago where sellers should offer the best price possible to get potential buyers in the door. As a seller, you definitely want your property to be in the top 10 listings that any realtor will show a customer whose is looking within those parameters. We at Saltwater Property Group actively buy, sell and appraise both residential and commercial real estate. We definitely have an edge over the competion when it comes to analyzing past data and making future projections. Let's get back to the basics and start crunching numbers and data. We will educate you about this market - period.