You're not wrong.

That commission is a lot of money.

It took you months to earn it.

Maybe years.

Only you know which.

And somewhere between the first conversation with an agent and the moment you saw the number in writing, you had a thought you probably haven't said out loud to anyone.

How hard could this actually be?

Here's what nobody in the real estate industry wants you to understand.

The brokerage logo on the yard sign — the national brand, the #1 agent badge, the TV commercials — none of that is what sells your house.

What sells your house is the MLS.

One database. Every licensed broker in Okaloosa County accesses the same one. RE/MAX puts your home on it. Keller Williams puts your home on it. Uber Realty puts your home on it.

Same database. Same Zillow feed. Same buyers.

The brand on the sign is a label. What's under the label is identical.

You know the Amana washing machine? It's made by Whirlpool. Same factory. Same parts. Different badge. Different price.

Real estate works exactly the same way.

The question nobody asks is: what are you actually paying for when you pay 6%?

You were never hiring the agent. You were hiring the MLS. We just charge you honestly for it.

Twenty years ago a man in Vienna, Virginia sat with that same thought.

He was selling his house.

He stared at the commission number.

And he did something most people don't.

He pulled the thread.

He read every book he could find. He interviewed agents. He asked the questions nobody asks — what do you actually do that justifies this number?

He hired an agent anyway. He didn't have the legal knowledge, the marketing reach, or the paperwork experience to go it alone. But he walked away from that transaction with something nobody gave him.

The truth about how it actually works.

Homes don't sell because of magic.

They sell because of location, condition, and realistic pricing.

His agent provided options.

Not miracles.

And he walked away thinking: this system charges too much.

He couldn't let it go.

Before real estate, he had spent years as the chef for the Motion Picture Association of America. He understood what real value looked like. What it felt like when someone was overcharging you. He had built his career on a simple conviction — deliver what you promise, charge what's fair.

When he looked at the real estate industry, he saw a business built on the opposite of that.

So in 2007 he built an alternative.

His name is Jim.

And he has been proving it works ever since.

Here is what Jim found when he pulled that thread.

Stanford University studied 680 home sales over 26 years.

Their conclusion was precise and devastating.

Brokers do not produce higher selling prices.

The commission on those sales averaged $34,000.

The researchers called it a steep price to pay for the value rendered.

The Consumer Federation of America studied 17,805 home sales across 35 cities.

In city after city they found the same commission rate repeated in transaction after transaction, with a uniformity that does not exist in any honest competitive marketplace.

Their conclusion: this is not a free market.

Then in 2024 the federal government agreed loudly enough to extract $418 million from the National Association of Realtors.

The settlement produced one sentence the industry had spent decades avoiding.

Broker commissions are not set by law and are fully negotiable.

They always were.

You just weren't told.

If this has always been true, why is nothing changing?

Every licensed real estate broker in Northwest Florida accesses the same Multiple Listing Service. The MLS is the actual marketplace, not the brand, not the agent, not the yard sign. The commission rate determines only one thing: who keeps the money.

Because the system that overcharges you is the same system that controls where you look for help. And it has spent decades making sure you never looked anywhere else.

When most people start thinking about selling their home they Google it.

They ask friends.

They find Zillow. Realtor.com. HomeLight. UpNest. Maybe they remember Dave Ramsey saying to find an Endorsed Local Provider.

These feel like independent recommendations.

They are not.

Zillow charges agents thousands of dollars monthly for leads.

HomeLight and UpNest take 25 to 40 percent referral fees from the agents they recommend.

Dave Ramsey's Endorsed Local Providers pay to be in that program.

Every platform you trusted to help you find the best agent was financially rewarded for sending you to the most expensive one.

Not the best one.

The most expensive one.

This isn't a conspiracy.

It's a business model.

And it works beautifully.

For them.

The system that overcharges you controls where you go for help. The antidote isn't anger. It's understanding that the product under every real estate brand is the same product: MLS access. Once you know that, the question changes from "which agent should I hire?" to "how much should MLS access actually cost?" The answer is not 6%.

Jim has a different way of thinking about it.

If you're going in the wrong direction there are no enemies trying to stop you. But if you're threatening the system, they come for you.

For 19 years they've come for him.

He's still here.

So what do I actually do?

Jim calls it the Four Positions. Not because selling a home is complicated, the MLS does the heavy lifting and every brokerage accesses the same one. But because the difference between walking away whole and leaving money behind almost always comes down to four things being precisely right simultaneously.

The First Position: The Home

Not decorated. Not staged for vanity. Positioned.

That means a pre-listing inspection before a buyer ever walks through the door. You find the problems first. You decide what to fix, what to price in, and what to disclose, on your timeline, with competitive bids, without deadline pressure.

It means pricing from hard market data. Not hope. Not what your neighbor got two years ago. Not what you need to buy the next place.

What the market will actually bear today.

Accurate pricing protects two things most sellers never think about simultaneously, your sale price and your days on market.

Because a home that sits starts to smell like a problem.

Even when it isn't one.

The Second Position: The Compensation

This is where most of the money lives.

You will almost certainly receive a request from a buyer's agent to cover their fee.

Pay it.

Not blindly. Not automatically at whatever number they name.

But pay it, strategically, deliberately, as part of a negotiation you control.

Here is why.

The buyer sitting in that agent's car has already spent months searching. They've already fallen in love with your home on Zillow at eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. They've already driven past it twice.

The buyer's agent didn't find your home for them.

Your home found the buyer.

But won't agents skip my house if I offer less?

In 19 years Jim has never once had a buyer's agent refuse to show a listing because the commission was lower than they wanted. Not once. Because the buyer had already found the home. On Zillow. At eleven o'clock on a Tuesday night. The agent's job was to open the door.

That agent has made a promise to their client, that the seller will cover their fee. Honor that promise. Work with it. Because what you want is not to win an argument about commission.

What you want is a buyer.

The new rules mean you can negotiate that fee. Ask for three percent. Counter toward two. On a $600,000 home that single negotiation puts $6,000 back in your pocket before anyone touches anything else.

Position the compensation. Don't surrender it.

The Third Position: The Buyer

This is the one nobody talks about and everybody should.

The buyer who wants your home is not your adversary.

They are cash-strapped. They've scraped together a down payment. They have closing costs. They have the list of things they want to do to the house the moment it's theirs.

They are not sitting on a pile of extra money waiting to spend it.

When you understand that, really understand it, you stop seeing the transaction as a negotiation between opponents.

You start seeing it as a puzzle.

How do we structure this so the buyer can actually get to the closing table?

The seller who makes it easy for the right buyer to buy their home doesn't lose money.

They close.

The Fourth Position: The Buyer's Agent

They are not your enemy either.

They have a client who wants your home. They have a contract with that client. They have a professional obligation to get them across the finish line.

Work with them.

Communicate clearly. Respond quickly. Negotiate firmly but fairly.

Because the buyer's agent who feels respected and heard becomes your ally in the final stretch, when financing gets complicated, when the inspection produces surprises, when the appraisal comes in at a number nobody expected.

Four positions.

The home. The compensation. The buyer. The buyer's agent.

All four precisely set. All four working together.

That is not a discount service.

That is a strategy.

Same MLS. Same buyer. Same house.

The difference is the label you're paying for.

RE/MAX lists your home on the Emerald Coast MLS. Keller Williams lists your home on the Emerald Coast MLS. Uber Realty lists your home on the Emerald Coast MLS.

One buyer finds your home on Zillow. That buyer was always going to find your home on Zillow.

The commission doesn't change that. The commission only changes what you keep.

Here is what the math looks like on a $600,000 home in Niceville, Shalimar, or Fort Walton Beach.

Traditional model: $36,000 in total commission. Gone.

Uber Realty: 1% listing fee plus a negotiated 2% buyer's agent commission. Total: $18,000.

The difference: $18,000 that stays in your account.

Not because you got less.

Because you finally understood what you were actually paying for.

Jim is not going to tell you what to do.

He is going to show you the numbers.

All of them.

Before you sign anything.

Before you commit to anything.

Before you owe him a single thing.

He will put your home on one side of a plain English net sheet and what you keep on the other.

At 6 percent.

At his fee.

With a negotiated buyer's agent commission.

Without one.

Every scenario. Every dollar. In plain English. On a piece of paper you can take home and sit with.

Because Jim was you once.

He sat at a kitchen table staring at a number that felt wrong.

He pulled the thread.

He spent 19 years proving what he found.

He is not trying to talk you out of hiring someone else.

He is trying to make sure that whatever you decide, you decide it with your eyes open.

With the real numbers in front of you.

With the full picture that the industry spent decades making sure you never had.

That is it.

That is the whole thing.

Five hundred families.

Two million dollars that stayed where it belonged — in the hands of the people who earned it.

Month by month. Year by year.

The same way you did.

My name is Jim.

Pleased to meet you.

850-499-2940

Call or text. I always answer.

Questions home sellers in Okaloosa County ask us every week

Does a 1% listing fee mean buyers' agents will skip my home?

No. Buyers find homes through the MLS based on price, location, and condition — not the listing commission. In 19 years of listings in Northwest Florida, we have never had a buyer's agent refuse to show a home due to commission rate. The buyer's agent commission is separate from the listing fee and is negotiated independently. Your home found the buyer. The agent's job is to open the door.

Is the MLS the same for every broker in Fort Walton Beach?

Yes. Every licensed real estate broker in Okaloosa County accesses the Emerald Coast MLS. The database, the Zillow feed, the Realtor.com listing — these are identical regardless of which brokerage holds the listing. The brand on the yard sign does not change what buyers see or how they find your home. Commission rate determines only one thing: who keeps the money at closing.

What did the 2024 NAR settlement change about commissions?

The settlement confirmed what independent research had shown for decades: broker commissions are not fixed by law and are fully negotiable. Sellers are no longer required to offer a buyer's agent commission through the MLS. This creates real negotiating leverage for sellers who understand how to use it. Uber Realty has operated this way since 2007.

How much more do sellers keep with Uber Realty vs. a 6% broker in Niceville or Fort Walton Beach?

On a $340,000 home — the approximate median in Okaloosa County — the difference between a 6% total commission and Uber Realty's 3% total (1% listing fee plus a negotiated 2% buyer agent commission) is approximately $10,200. On a $500,000 home, that difference reaches $15,000. On a $600,000 home, $18,000. The net sheet we provide before you sign anything shows every scenario in plain English with your specific numbers.

What full services does Uber Realty provide at 1%?

Professional photography, drone footage, 3D virtual tours, full MLS listing with syndication to Zillow, Realtor.com, and all major platforms, pricing strategy based on current comparable sales, negotiation on your behalf, and broker-led representation through closing. The 1% is the listing fee. The service is complete. What you don't pay for is franchise fees, national brand overhead, and a logo that has never once changed what a buyer offered for a home.

Do I have to pay a buyer's agent in Florida?

No. But be ready for most buyers to request it as part of their offer. That request is a negotiation point — like price, repairs, and closing costs — and we treat it exactly that way. Our goal is always your net, not a predetermined split.

What's the difference between 1% and 2% at Uber Realty?

Same core strategy. Same negotiation. Same MLS access. The 1% option is digital-first with more seller involvement in day-to-day coordination. The 2% option includes more in-person support, hands-on vendor coordination, and a more traditional full-service feel — without the traditional overhead that drives commissions to 6%.

Should I get a pre-listing inspection before selling?

Almost always yes. It shifts leverage back to you before the clock starts. You find issues on your timeline, get competitive bids, and decide what to fix, what to price in, and what to disclose — instead of reacting under contract deadlines with a buyer holding the leverage.