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[Q=judik7] [Q=jayjay] [b]As long as any resale company charges an upfront fee in the hundreds to thousands of dollars I will continue my crusade against them, so we'll just have to agree to disagree. Why would it be so hard for the company you praise so highly to charge a fee after they sell? I know that you'll say, "well they're not licensed real estate agents so therefore they have to take any fees (they call them marketing, advertising, listing etc) before they sell". This is total BS in my opinion as they can most certainly take any fees after they sell, they just can't cal the fees commission. Would you list your home on the market with a real estate company that would charge you an upfront fee ..... absolutely not ..... should be no differrence with timeshares. Again, all upfront fee parasites have spoiled the entire barrel of apples, however I'm glad that you're satisfied with your upfront fee company.[/b][/Q] Jay Jay, There are real estate companies that charge upfront fees to sell houses. They do quite well. What they do is a comparative market analysis for the Seller and then put the listing in the MLS for the Seller. The Seller pays a $500-$600 fee for this service. The Seller does everything else. What they don't do is lie to the Seller about the price. They don't tell the Seller that there will be no additional Broker fees. If you call SMTN they will tell you prices that are out of site and tell you there are no Broker fees but if the property is sold by their Broker Company there is definitely a Brokers fee. And I will guarantee you it will not sell for the price that is quoted to the Seller when they are collecting their upfront fee. There is nothing wrong with the upfront fee. It is the lies that are told to collect them. What you should be talking about is the fact that they collect an upfront fee and then collect a Brokers commission.[/Q] [b]Throughout the years we've sold 3 houses ..... we would never, ever even consider paying an upfront fee to a real estate agency to list any of those homes. The comparative anaylsis and listing in the MLS brochure was included in the contract at no charge and on top of that we got an appraisal with a professional appraiser (at our cost) to be on the safe side. The agents had to WORK to sell those houses if they wanted the commission. Again, I would never consider paying an upfront fee to a real estate agent or a timeshare resale company to sell my home or my timeshare.[/b]