Flat-fee MLS in Texas

What you save, and what you take on

On a $450,000 sale in Texas, a 2.5% listing commission is $11,250. A flat-fee Multiple Listing Service (MLS) package typically runs a few hundred dollars. That difference, $10,800, is the entire financial case for selling this way.

In exchange you inherit the listing agent’s job. Pricing it right, getting decent photographs, writing the thing, answering the phone, standing in the kitchen every Saturday, and then negotiating a contract with someone who may do this for a living.

Whether that is a good trade depends on what your time is worth and whether haggling over a six-figure number sounds tolerable or awful. Both answers are legitimate.

What Texas charges no matter who sells the house

Texas has no state or local real estate transfer tax. That is a genuine cost advantage over most states, where transfer taxes add 1% to 4% to a seller's closing costs.

Texas title premiums are promulgated by the Texas Department of Insurance, so every title company charges the same rate. A 6.2% reduction took effect March 1, 2026. The seller customarily pays the owner's policy in Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio, though it is negotiable.