It’s long been presumed that you must pay a 5%-6% commission to sell your home. Officially, real estate commissions are negotiable, but practically speaking we’ve found that few agents truly negotiate. There appears to be an unwritten understanding that if you charge less than the customary 5%-6%, you are an evil discounter and risk being ostracized from the “good ole boy club.” 

Over the years, there have been lower than 6% real estate firms that tried to gain traction, but the established real estate community seemed to exert huge negative pressure on them. The lower fee agents are often vehemently criticized by the traditional real estate community.

Our research discovered several situations where real estate firm owners and brokers actually prohibited their agents from advertising lower than 5%-6% fees because it would infuriate other agents in the firm. This seems “anti-trust violation” wrong since most agents are not employees but rather independent contractors who should be free to charge what they wish.

Sell your home, pay just $990! Could it be true? That’s quite a discount from 6%. Yet we found a firm that’s making a go at it. To drive the $990 flat fee message home, the firm is called “just 990.” 

just 990 launched their home selling program in January 2024. This full service $990 home selling program is being aggressively marketed in Arizona, offering to connect home sellers with top local agents who pre-agreed to provide all traditional services for just $990 at closing, regardless of a home’s sale price. 

We were provided with the just 990 Arizona TV commercial schedule, and it appears just 990 is running the longer 60 second commercials (most commercials are 30s) marketing its $990 flat home selling fee seven days a week, on both the morning and the evening news shows. According to a just 990 spokesperson, the firm’s one-minute animated TV commercials have been highly effective at explaining the program on TV. 

This $990 flat fee home selling program is causing quite a stir among local real estate competitors. A peek into one of the local Arizona agent Facebook forums makes it clear that agents in Arizona do not take kindly to “discounters.”

According to the just 990 website, and an explanatory video by Greg Hague, the firm’s founder (also a broker and attorney), just 990 provides sellers with all traditional home selling services at one flat fee of $990, regardless of a home’s sale price. That $990 flat fee would equate to a savings of about $29,000 on a $500,000 home. Mr. Hague reaffirmed that there is no upfront fee, no obligation to sell, and no downside to the program… just a massive savings for home sellers.

We obtained a just 990 home seller brochure explaining that for just $990 sellers benefit from global marketing exposure, including placement on popular platforms like Zillow and Realtor.com. “Sellers get everything they would normally expect from a top real estate agent, including expert price negotiation to get buyers up to their highest offer, contract protection, and representation of the sellers’ best interests through closing.”

According to the just 990 website and a 2-minute explanatory animated video, one of the standout features of the just 990 program is its member agents’ training by one of the highest rated agent training firms in the U.S., who according to a study released in 2024, those agents averaged 7.8% higher prices for their sellers than other agents in their local Multiple Listing Service (MLS).

Jake Morrow, COO of just 990, told us that over 2300 home sellers have already reached out to the firm since it launched in January of this year.  Several of those homes sellers have already sold their homes at the flat fee of $990, with the average savings per seller coming to about $27,000 compared to paying 6%. Several of the firm’s listings are in the $1,000,000 price range, making a $990 flat fee to sell resulting in a huge savings. Mr. Morrow says the firm is in the process of having its sellers tape TV commercials informing other Arizona home sellers that just 990 is the real deal, you really can pay just $990 to sell your home, and the days of the 6% commission are going to end.

Will just 990 make it big? It’s too early to tell but from this writer’s perspective, paying just $990 to sell my home sounds a lot more appealing than paying 6%. I have three kids and could use the savings from paying $990 instead of 5%-6% to help with their education.