Full-Service at 1% vs. Full-Service at 6%: A Line-by-Line Comparison of What Sellers Actually Get

ByPawli Paola Meyer

A seller asked me last week, across my kitchen table with a listing folder between us, the question I had been waiting to hear for a year. She said, “If you’re really charging 1 percent for a full-service listing, what am I actually giving up?” She had interviewed four agents, three of them at traditional full-service brokerages charging 5 or 6 percent all in, and she wanted the line-by-line. She wanted to understand, specifically, what appears and disappears on the service ledger as the fee moves.

I respect that question more than almost any other a seller can ask. It is the one that presumes nothing and requires me to show my work. So that is what I want to do here — an honest, item-by-item accounting of what a seller gets from a traditional full-service listing at 5 or 6 percent commission versus what the same seller gets at Maison Pawli’s 1 percent Professional tier. No marketing spin. No “boutique philosophy” hand-waving. The actual deliverables, and the actual differences.

Before I go through it, there is one thing I want to be clear about, because I see this confusion in almost every seller conversation: Maison Pawli’s 1 percent Professional listing is not the same as our 2 percent Premier listing. I run three tiers, not one. Each tier is priced honestly against what the tier actually includes. The Professional tier is full-service marketing and transaction management; the Premier tier is everything in Professional plus physical white-glove representation. Understanding the difference between those two is most of understanding how Maison Pawli’s model works — and it is the piece most seller comparisons miss.

Let me walk through it.

The Setup: Two Listings on the Same Block

To make the comparison concrete, picture two nearly identical houses in a North Shore hamlet — Mount Sinai, Miller Place, Sound Beach, take your pick. Both are 1990s colonials. Both are listed at $925,000. Both hit the market on the same Thursday in April.

House A is listed with a traditional full-service brokerage at a 2.5 percent listing fee, with 2.5 percent offered to the buyer’s agent — total commission exposure of 5 percent, or $46,250. House B is listed with Maison Pawli’s Professional tier at a 1 percent listing fee, with 2 to 2.5 percent negotiated separately to the buyer’s agent under the post-NAR settlement rules — total commission exposure of roughly 3 to 3.5 percent, or $27,750 to $32,375.

The delta is $14,000 to $18,500. What does House A’s seller get for that $14,000 to $18,500 that House B’s seller does not? Let me go through the entire service ledger, honestly.

1. MLS Listing + Full Syndication

Traditional full-service at 2.5 percent: Listing enters OneKey MLS, syndicates automatically to Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, Redfin, and dozens of smaller portals.

Maison Pawli Professional at 1 percent: Same OneKey MLS. Same automatic syndication. The MLS does not know or care what listing fee you charged. The syndication pipes are identical.

Delta: none.

2. Listing Copy and Management

Traditional full-service: Listing agent writes the property description and manages it through the sale.

Maison Pawli Professional: I write the listing copy personally and manage it through the sale. Same deliverable; different person holding the pen.

Delta: none in output. In practice, a broker-owner writing fewer descriptions per year writes them with more care.

3. Professional Photography

Traditional full-service: A real estate photographer is booked by the brokerage, shoots 30 to 50 interior and exterior images, delivers edited HDR files within 24 to 48 hours. Included in the 2.5 percent fee.

Maison Pawli Professional at 1 percent: Here is where the tiers matter. In the Professional tier, the seller provides the photography — you take the photos yourself or hire a photographer, email them in, and we process them for MLS submission and marketing. If you want Maison Pawli to take the professional photography personally, that is the Premier tier at 2 percent, which covers Mt. Sinai and surrounding markets.

Delta: photography responsibility shifts to the seller at 1 percent. This is the main service line that differs between Professional and a traditional full-service listing. It is also the primary reason the fee is 1 percent and not 2.

Practical note: Many sellers already know local real estate photographers or have professional-grade phone camera skills; a decent photographer in this market runs $250 to $500 for a listing shoot. On a $925,000 sale, that out-of-pocket cost against $9,250 to $14,000 in commission savings is not a close call financially. But the time and coordination are on the seller.

4. Drone / Aerial Photography

Traditional full-service: Drone work is typically included for properties over $750,000 or for waterfront.

Maison Pawli Professional: Same arrangement as still photography — seller commissions drone work if the property benefits from it, or upgrades to Premier (2 percent) where drone is Pawli-taken. Local FAA Part 107 drone operators on Long Island run $150 to $350 per shoot.

Delta: shifts to seller at the Professional tier.

5. 3D / Matterport Virtual Tour

Traditional full-service: Matterport or equivalent 3D walkthrough is standard on higher-price listings.

Maison Pawli Professional: Optional add-on that the seller commissions if it serves the property. For out-of-state buyer pools, it is worth doing; for a conventional North Shore colonial attracting local buyers, often not essential.

Delta: shifts to seller; but the service is genuinely optional for most listings, not a hidden cost.

6. Documents and Disclosure Forms

Traditional full-service: Full administration of New York disclosure requirements, listing agreement paperwork, contingency forms.

Maison Pawli Professional: Full administration of the same paperwork. This is included at every tier — it is compliance work, not marketing, and it is non-negotiable.

Delta: none.

7. ShowingTime Scheduling Infrastructure

Traditional full-service: Access to ShowingTime, the industry-standard showing scheduler, so buyer agents can request tours through a single portal.

Maison Pawli Professional: Same ShowingTime integration. Tour requests come through the same system.

Delta: none in infrastructure.

8. Lockbox and Physical Property Access

Traditional full-service: The brokerage installs the electronic lockbox, typically a Supra iBox that buyer agents access through their MLS credentials.

Maison Pawli Professional: The seller purchases and installs the lockbox (a Supra-compatible device runs roughly $100). The practical reality is that the lockbox is a one-time install at the start of the listing, not ongoing service.

Delta: small, one-time seller responsibility at 1 percent.

9. Showings and Open Houses

Traditional full-service: The listing agent (or their team) runs showings and open houses personally.

Maison Pawli Professional at 1 percent: The seller hosts showings and open houses. Buyer agents arrive, access through the lockbox, tour the home; for open houses, the seller is present.

Maison Pawli Premier at 2 percent: Pawli hosts all private showings personally, and runs two hosted open houses. This is the main physical-representation distinction between our two tiers.

Delta: this is the second major line item where the Professional tier diverges. If the idea of being present for your own showings is unworkable — out-of-town seller, estate situation, demanding work schedule — Premier is the tier that fits. If being present is fine or even preferable, the 1 percent tier saves real money.

10. Inspection, Appraisal, and Final Walkthrough Access

Traditional full-service: Listing agent attends inspection, coordinates appraisal access, attends final walkthrough.

Maison Pawli Professional: Seller provides access for inspection, appraisal, and final walkthrough.

Maison Pawli Premier: Pawli is present at all three.

Delta: shifts to seller at Professional tier. For most sellers living in the home through closing, being present for these appointments is not an imposition — you are there anyway. For sellers out of town during the closing period, Premier is the right call.

11. Negotiation, Offer Review, and Counters

Traditional full-service: Listing agent negotiates offers and counters. Experienced listing agents at full-service brokerages are often excellent negotiators. The question is how much time they can spend on your negotiation given their book.

Maison Pawli Professional: I negotiate every offer and every counter personally, regardless of tier. This is a brokerage-level service that does not shift to the seller at any price point. When you hire Maison Pawli, Pawli negotiates your deal.

Delta: none in who negotiates. The 1 percent tier does not move negotiation onto the seller. Only physical presence shifts.

12. Transaction Management and Paperwork

Traditional full-service: Transaction coordinator, either inside the brokerage or contracted, manages paperwork, contingency deadlines, inspection scheduling, appraisal coordination, closing document flow.

Maison Pawli Professional: Same full transaction management. I handle contingency timelines, deadline enforcement, document flow, and attorney coordination on every listing, regardless of tier.

Delta: none.

13. Attorney, Mortgage Broker, and Vendor Referrals

Traditional full-service: The brokerage has a Rolodex of attorneys, inspectors, stagers, and photographers they refer sellers to.

Maison Pawli Professional: Same referral network, built over a decade of working on the North Shore. Any seller gets access to the full list, regardless of tier.

Delta: none.

14. Email and Phone Support Through Closing

Traditional full-service: Included.

Maison Pawli Professional: Included at every tier.

Delta: none.

What Is Actually Different, Honestly

After walking all fourteen line items, here is the clean summary of what shifts between a traditional 5 percent full-service listing and Maison Pawli’s 1 percent Professional listing:

What stays identical: MLS listing and syndication, listing copy, documents and disclosures, ShowingTime scheduling, negotiation, transaction management, vendor referrals, email and phone support.

What shifts to the seller at the 1 percent Professional tier: Taking the property photographs (or hiring a photographer), commissioning drone work if needed, installing the lockbox, hosting showings and open houses, providing access for the inspection / appraisal / final walkthrough.

What is available at the 2 percent Premier tier that is not in Professional: Pawli-taken photography and drone, hosted private showings, two hosted open houses, presence at inspections and appraisals and final walkthrough, Heritage Diner Lobby Showcase for select homes, Heritage Blog feature, AI virtual staging, AI marketing.

That is the complete honest accounting. The Professional tier is not a lesser version of full-service — it is full-service marketing and transaction management with physical presence delegated to the seller. The Premier tier is what people typically mean when they say “white-glove full-service.” Both are priced against what they actually include.

So What Is the Delta from 5 Percent to 1 Percent Actually Buying?

On a $925,000 listing, the gap between a traditional 5 percent total-commission structure and a Maison Pawli Professional structure is roughly $14,000 to $18,500 depending on where the buyer’s-agent commission lands under the post-NAR settlement negotiations. What that gap pays for, at the traditional brokerage, is principally two things:

First, the professional photography and drone work taken by the brokerage. At Maison Pawli Professional, you either hire a photographer (approximately $250 to $500) or you upgrade to the Premier tier at 2 percent where Pawli handles it personally. On a $925,000 sale, the math of paying $500 for photography against keeping $8,000 in commission is straightforward.

Second, physical presence at every appointment. Someone to host the showings, run the opens, attend the inspection. This is real work. At Maison Pawli, we moved that service into the Premier tier at 2 percent because it genuinely costs more to deliver — it is my time on your property on multiple occasions across the listing period, and pricing it honestly means breaking it out.

What the 5 percent does not buy that the 1 percent does not buy is identical service in MLS, syndication, negotiation, transaction management, or closing coordination. None of that shifts. The 1 percent Professional tier is not a bare-bones listing where the seller is doing half the work. It is the marketing and transaction half of a full-service relationship, with photography and physical presence broken out as upgrade items.

How to Evaluate Which Tier Fits Your Situation

For most North Shore sellers living in their home through closing, the Professional tier at 1 percent is the structurally sensible choice. Being present for your own showings is rarely a hardship; commissioning a local photographer for $400 is rarely a close call against $8,000 in commission savings; you are going to be at the inspection anyway.

The Premier tier at 2 percent is the right answer for a specific type of seller: out of town during the listing period, estate situation, busy professional who cannot interrupt work for showings, or a property in Mt. Sinai or surrounding markets where the full Heritage Diner Lobby Showcase and full marketing suite materially affect the outcome. In those situations, the extra percent buys a real deliverable: Pawli physically on the property, handling everything.

The Smart Seller tier at $500 plus 0.5 percent is for a different seller entirely — one who wants to run the sale themselves, with a licensed broker protecting the paperwork and negotiating the deal, but who is willing to take on listing copy, photography, and buyer communication too.

The Thing Most Comparison Articles Get Wrong

Most discount-broker comparison content treats a 1 percent listing as if it were the same bundle as a 2.5 percent listing, with some unnamed services quietly removed. That is dishonest. A 1 percent full-service listing that is actually identical to a 2.5 percent full-service listing is not a sustainable model — somebody is eating the cost, and that cost will show up somewhere, usually in reduced attention per listing or compressed agent incentives.

Maison Pawli’s model is different because it does not pretend the services are identical. The Professional tier at 1 percent is an honest tier with specific inclusions and specific exclusions. The Premier tier at 2 percent adds back the physical-representation services that have real cost. You pay for what you get. Nothing is hidden.

That transparency is the thing I think matters most. If you interview agents and a competitor quotes you a fee significantly lower than 2 percent for a full white-glove listing, the right question is not “great, where do I sign” — it is “what is not included, and what happens when the moment comes that I need that service.” The honest answer, from any broker, should tell you exactly what tier you are actually buying.

That is the conversation worth having before you sign anything. If you would like to walk through which tier fits your specific property and timeline, I am always happy to have it in person — or over coffee at the Heritage Diner .

Real estate markets change. For current listings and market data, contact Pawli at Maison Pawli.

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