Frequently Asked Questions

Yes. Flat fee MLS is a legal, established way to sell a home in Texas. Texas law requires that a licensed real estate broker enter any listing into the MLS, so a flat fee service works by having that broker list your home for a one-time fee instead of a percentage commission. Lone Star Flat Fee MLS is YSL Enterprise LLC, a licensed Texas broker registered with TREC under license #703347-B, and you can verify it at TREC.texas.gov.

You need a licensed brokerage, not a traditional agent. In Texas only a licensed brokerage can submit a listing to the MLS, which is why a pure for-sale-by-owner listing can't appear there. Lone Star Flat Fee MLS acts as your listing broker for a flat fee instead of a 3% listing commission, and you keep control of showings, offers and negotiation.

Your home is listed on the MLS that serves your local Texas market — HAR in the Houston area, NTREIS in Dallas–Fort Worth, ACTRIS/ABOR in Austin, and SABOR in San Antonio. You are placed on the board that covers your property's location, which is the same MLS a traditional local listing agent would use.

About 24 hours. Once you complete every step — including payment — the listing team reviews your submission and posts it to your local Texas MLS within 24 hours. You receive an email with your MLS number the moment it goes live.

Lone Star Flat Fee MLS starts at a flat $99, priced by listing type (residential, rental, or land). You pay it once at checkout and owe the brokerage nothing at closing — no percentage of the sale price. For comparison, a traditional Texas listing agent charges roughly 3%, or about $9,900 on a $330,000 home.

No. The flat $99 listing fee is the only charge for the listing itself, and nothing further is owed to Lone Star Flat Fee MLS when the home sells. Optional extras — professional photography, a yard sign, a lockbox, or hourly agent consulting — are priced separately and only billed if you choose them. A buyer's agent commission, if you decide to offer one, is paid to that agent and not to us.

Full Representation costs the same flat $99 listing fee today plus 1.5% of the sale price at closing, and the 1.5% is owed only if your home actually sells. It pays for a licensed Texas agent who works for you, the seller, and handles offers, negotiation and closing for you — on a $400,000 home, that's $6,000 instead of about $12,000 at a traditional 3%. The 1.5% does not pay the buyer's agent — the agent who works for the person buying your home. Whether to offer that agent a commission is a separate, optional choice.

No. Offering a buyer's agent commission is optional for Texas sellers following the NAR settlement rule change in August 2024. Many sellers still offer 2–3% to attract more buyers, but it is your choice, and it is separate from anything you pay Lone Star Flat Fee MLS — the flat listing fee and, on Full Representation, the 1.5% cover your side of the sale only.

White Glove includes everything in Full Representation, plus showings handled for you and a professional photo shoot. It also replaces the 1.5% commission with one flat $3,000 fee, so nothing is owed to Lone Star Flat Fee MLS at close.

Texas law requires a signed listing agreement and a wire fraud advisory at minimum. Depending on your package and property, we may also require a buyer representation disclosure and a lead paint disclosure for pre-1978 homes. All documents are sent electronically — sign from any device.

Yes. If your listing has not yet been submitted to the MLS, you can request a full refund. Once the listing is live, refunds are not available for the flat fee — but you can cancel (withdraw) the listing from the MLS at any time at no additional charge.

Yes. When a buyer has an agent, that agent submits the offer and speaks for the buyer — they work for the buyer, not for you. On the flat-fee listing, you receive the offer from the buyer's agent and negotiate with them yourself. On Full Representation, your own licensed Texas agent receives the offer and negotiates with the buyer's agent on your behalf.

Yes. Once your listing is live on your local Texas MLS it syndicates automatically to Zillow, Realtor.com, Redfin and Trulia, along with the hundreds of sites that pull from the MLS feed. This is the same distribution a traditional listing agent's listing gets — buyers cannot tell from the portals that you paid a flat fee.

No, not because of the listing method. Buyers search the MLS, Zillow and Realtor.com, where a flat fee listing appears identically to an agent's listing with the same photos, description and exposure. What moves the sale price is pricing the home correctly, photo quality, and how you handle negotiation — not who typed the listing into the MLS.

You can withdraw your MLS listing at any time at no extra charge, and there is no long-term contract to break. The flat listing fee pays for getting and keeping your home on the MLS, so it is not contingent on a sale and is not refunded once the listing is live. You are free to relist later or hire a traditional agent instead.

Yes. Add the professional photo package at checkout or contact us after your listing goes live. We'll schedule a photographer and update your MLS photos within 3 business days.