How common is it for buyers to get part of the commission?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^^ The problem is that it is really hard to know the good agents from the bad. And many "good" agents don't save their client money, but just encourage them to overbid.

Just yesterday, I got an alert about a house that sold for well above asking, which it shouldn't have (I study the areas I am looking at very closely). When I see an agent get a good or bad deal for a buyer, I always make sure to look up the agent. I looked up this agent's past ten transactions representing the buyer, all of which happened this year, and in each one, the buyer paid at least 5% over asking. Maybe that was justified in every instance, but I doubt it.

It really would be nice to know which agents give their clients good advice, know the inspectors who find structural issues, etc. But it's not. And even going off word of mouth is tricky -- the agent I'm referring to above gets great reviews.

It is often necessary to pay over ask to get a home in the DMV. I'm not sure that your speculation about the agent is warranted although it may be. However, I do completely encourage people to write truthful reviews about their experiences with agents who were incompetent or bad in whatever way. It's really the only way to protect other people from having a bad experience too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you all for real? I had no idea this was a thing. How do I approach this with my sellers agent?

How old are you that you need to ask this question?

I want to know too! 7 pages of bs yet no one has answered this. I call total bs.

[Anonymous]

OOPP now 9 pages no answer.

Lies, all lies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We got half of the commission, so 3%, but it was a friend. It was significant.

So you got a 100% of the buyers' agent commission then? How? As a seller credit?

No ones answering this at all. I don't think this is true...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you all for real? I had no idea this was a thing. How do I approach this with my sellers agent?

How old are you that you need to ask this question?

I want to know too! 7 pages of bs yet no one has answered this. I call total bs.

You really need instructions on how to get a commission rebate? Interview agents and ask for it. Use Upnest. Call some of the agents people have recommended. Type buyers agent commission rebate into google.

If you need this degree of handholding, a rebating agent is probably not for you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way any good agent is going to work for pennies.

Try your luck with EXP, Redfin, whatever other no name brokerage and best of luck.

Why do you need a good buyers agent? If you aren't buying off market (and I really think that these stories of agents finding buyers the perfect house and closing pre-market are a made up marketing tool), you can find houses just as easily as they can. For those of us who consider zillow and redfin fun to browse, there is a good chance that you know the market just as well as they do. We've used services that refund the majority of an agents commission every time we've bought and have ended up with earnest but very inexperienced agents. It worked find because we always going to do the work ourselves even with an experienced agent

It's not about finding the house necessarily. Of course you can look on the internet yourself. It's about getting the best price, terms and conditions and having someone advocate for you, someone who understands how to protect your interests. I would say 50 percent or more of my clients are attorneys and most of the time they need as much guidance as any other client. This year I had clients who wanted to purchase a house and were willing to write an offer about $40k over where I thought they should go, no escalation clause.,They got the house with the price I recommended saving them $40k. I had clients who didn't understand the property condition paragraph because their prior agent didn't do the right thing so they thought they were responsible for getting the stuff left at the house at the walkthrough out themselves. With an excellent home inspector, I helped prevent two clients from purchasing homes, both likely with structural issues. I could say more but the thing that bothers me so much about this site is that people routinely trash realtors for not adding value to a transaction but also want to use inexperienced agents who will give them a piece of their commission, people who have horrible realtors who won't write a bad review, people are so nasty about the lack of education needed to be a realtor. Yes that is true and I wish that would change but I don't know of one agent who doesnt have at least a bachelor's degree. You do need to be careful about who you pick to represent you as is true in any field. A doctor at Hopkins killed my brother, my sister's divorce lawyer is milking her for every cent he can get. Etc. My two cents today. And last thought, if you think realtors don't add value, don't yourself and negotiate a credit to give you some or all of the commission that your buyer's agent would've received.

Is that why NAR - your industry - is repeatedly guilty of violating antitrust law, fraud, market manipulation, and anti-consumer practices? Because the industry is about adding value to real estate transactions? If value occurs, it’s not by design. It's an exception.

If you don’t like well-deserved, contemptible reputation the industry has inflicted on itself, find a new source of income.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way any good agent is going to work for pennies.

Try your luck with EXP, Redfin, whatever other no name brokerage and best of luck.

Why do you need a good buyers agent? If you aren't buying off market (and I really think that these stories of agents finding buyers the perfect house and closing pre-market are a made up marketing tool), you can find houses just as easily as they can. For those of us who consider zillow and redfin fun to browse, there is a good chance that you know the market just as well as they do. We've used services that refund the majority of an agents commission every time we've bought and have ended up with earnest but very inexperienced agents. It worked find because we always going to do the work ourselves even with an experienced agent

It's not about finding the house necessarily. Of course you can look on the internet yourself. It's about getting the best price, terms and conditions and having someone advocate for you, someone who understands how to protect your interests. I would say 50 percent or more of my clients are attorneys and most of the time they need as much guidance as any other client. This year I had clients who wanted to purchase a house and were willing to write an offer about $40k over where I thought they should go, no escalation clause.,They got the house with the price I recommended saving them $40k. I had clients who didn't understand the property condition paragraph because their prior agent didn't do the right thing so they thought they were responsible for getting the stuff left at the house at the walkthrough out themselves. With an excellent home inspector, I helped prevent two clients from purchasing homes, both likely with structural issues. I could say more but the thing that bothers me so much about this site is that people routinely trash realtors for not adding value to a transaction but also want to use inexperienced agents who will give them a piece of their commission, people who have horrible realtors who won't write a bad review, people are so nasty about the lack of education needed to be a realtor. Yes that is true and I wish that would change but I don't know of one agent who doesnt have at least a bachelor's degree. You do need to be careful about who you pick to represent you as is true in any field. A doctor at Hopkins killed my brother, my sister's divorce lawyer is milking her for every cent he can get. Etc. My two cents today. And last thought, if you think realtors don't add value, don't yourself and negotiate a credit to give you some or all of the commission that your buyer's agent would've received.

Is that why NAR - your industry - is repeatedly guilty of violating antitrust law, fraud, market manipulation, and anti-consumer practices? Because the industry is about adding value to real estate transactions? If value occurs, it’s not by design. It's an exception.

If you don’t like well-deserved, contemptible reputation the industry has inflicted on itself, find a new source of income.

I cant speak for NAR but I can speak for myself and many, many reputable agents that always put their clients first. And you're wrong about the industry not being about adding value. Of course that's what it is about. Unfortunately there are greedy, unethical agents in real estate as there are in every field probably exacerbated by the low educational requirements needed to be a realtor. I personally think there should be a bachelor's degree needed to sell real estate. But no, I'm not looking for a new source of income. I love what I do and feel good about what I do for my clients.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What are you all for real? I had no idea this was a thing. How do I approach this with my sellers agent?

How old are you that you need to ask this question?

I want to know too! 7 pages of bs yet no one has answered this. I call total bs.

You really need instructions on how to get a commission rebate? Interview agents and ask for it. Use Upnest. Call some of the agents people have recommended. Type buyers agent commission rebate into google.

If you need this degree of handholding, a rebating agent is probably not for you.

+1. And probably true for the dude who doesn't understand simple math and percentages.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way any good agent is going to work for pennies.

Try your luck with EXP, Redfin, whatever other no name brokerage and best of luck.

Why do you need a good buyers agent? If you aren't buying off market (and I really think that these stories of agents finding buyers the perfect house and closing pre-market are a made up marketing tool), you can find houses just as easily as they can. For those of us who consider zillow and redfin fun to browse, there is a good chance that you know the market just as well as they do. We've used services that refund the majority of an agents commission every time we've bought and have ended up with earnest but very inexperienced agents. It worked find because we always going to do the work ourselves even with an experienced agent

It's not about finding the house necessarily. Of course you can look on the internet yourself. It's about getting the best price, terms and conditions and having someone advocate for you, someone who understands how to protect your interests. I would say 50 percent or more of my clients are attorneys and most of the time they need as much guidance as any other client. This year I had clients who wanted to purchase a house and were willing to write an offer about $40k over where I thought they should go, no escalation clause.,They got the house with the price I recommended saving them $40k. I had clients who didn't understand the property condition paragraph because their prior agent didn't do the right thing so they thought they were responsible for getting the stuff left at the house at the walkthrough out themselves. With an excellent home inspector, I helped prevent two clients from purchasing homes, both likely with structural issues. I could say more but the thing that bothers me so much about this site is that people routinely trash realtors for not adding value to a transaction but also want to use inexperienced agents who will give them a piece of their commission, people who have horrible realtors who won't write a bad review, people are so nasty about the lack of education needed to be a realtor. Yes that is true and I wish that would change but I don't know of one agent who doesnt have at least a bachelor's degree. You do need to be careful about who you pick to represent you as is true in any field. A doctor at Hopkins killed my brother, my sister's divorce lawyer is milking her for every cent he can get. Etc. My two cents today. And last thought, if you think realtors don't add value, don't yourself and negotiate a credit to give you some or all of the commission that your buyer's agent would've received.

Best price? Agents get paid more when the house sells for more. Your interest are 180 degrees opposite from your clients. If you were a lawyer, that fee structure would be malpractice.

How do you protect anyone’s interest? If there are contingencies, the buyer chooses whether or not to sign off (often with pressure from the agent to sign off). It’s not like you can write anything extra into a boilerplate contract - at least nothing extra that a seller would accept

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way any good agent is going to work for pennies.

Try your luck with EXP, Redfin, whatever other no name brokerage and best of luck.

Why do you need a good buyers agent? If you aren't buying off market (and I really think that these stories of agents finding buyers the perfect house and closing pre-market are a made up marketing tool), you can find houses just as easily as they can. For those of us who consider zillow and redfin fun to browse, there is a good chance that you know the market just as well as they do. We've used services that refund the majority of an agents commission every time we've bought and have ended up with earnest but very inexperienced agents. It worked find because we always going to do the work ourselves even with an experienced agent

It's not about finding the house necessarily. Of course you can look on the internet yourself. It's about getting the best price, terms and conditions and having someone advocate for you, someone who understands how to protect your interests. I would say 50 percent or more of my clients are attorneys and most of the time they need as much guidance as any other client. This year I had clients who wanted to purchase a house and were willing to write an offer about $40k over where I thought they should go, no escalation clause.,They got the house with the price I recommended saving them $40k. I had clients who didn't understand the property condition paragraph because their prior agent didn't do the right thing so they thought they were responsible for getting the stuff left at the house at the walkthrough out themselves. With an excellent home inspector, I helped prevent two clients from purchasing homes, both likely with structural issues. I could say more but the thing that bothers me so much about this site is that people routinely trash realtors for not adding value to a transaction but also want to use inexperienced agents who will give them a piece of their commission, people who have horrible realtors who won't write a bad review, people are so nasty about the lack of education needed to be a realtor. Yes that is true and I wish that would change but I don't know of one agent who doesnt have at least a bachelor's degree. You do need to be careful about who you pick to represent you as is true in any field. A doctor at Hopkins killed my brother, my sister's divorce lawyer is milking her for every cent he can get. Etc. My two cents today. And last thought, if you think realtors don't add value, don't yourself and negotiate a credit to give you some or all of the commission that your buyer's agent would've received.

Best price? Agents get paid more when the house sells for more. Your interest are 180 degrees opposite from your clients. If you were a lawyer, that fee structure would be malpractice.

How do you protect anyone’s interest? If there are contingencies, the buyer chooses whether or not to sign off (often with pressure from the agent to sign off). It’s not like you can write anything extra into a boilerplate contract - at least nothing extra that a seller would accept

I think the divergent interests comes from the fact that the faster an offer if accepted, the less work it is for the agent. Which is why agents often encourage buyers to bid above asking -- it increases the chance of getting the deal done. I don't think the incremental amount of money from a higher offer is the motivating factor (though it doesn't hurt).

Lawyers have fee structures which often are not aligned with clients also. Consider this, if a defense lawyer wins a big case on a motion to dismiss, the case is over -- no more hours to bill. But if they lose the motion to dismiss, it means millions of dollars spent doing labor-intensive document discovery and depositions. So losing the motion is actually best for the lawyers' financial interests in an hourly billing system. Same thing later in the case at summary judgment. Losing means more fees because the case goes to trial, which means millions more in billables. It's actually a deeply flawed system.

Not defending agents here, but just think it's important to be clear about how the incentives work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:There is no way any good agent is going to work for pennies.

Try your luck with EXP, Redfin, whatever other no name brokerage and best of luck.

Why do you need a good buyers agent? If you aren't buying off market (and I really think that these stories of agents finding buyers the perfect house and closing pre-market are a made up marketing tool), you can find houses just as easily as they can. For those of us who consider zillow and redfin fun to browse, there is a good chance that you know the market just as well as they do. We've used services that refund the majority of an agents commission every time we've bought and have ended up with earnest but very inexperienced agents. It worked find because we always going to do the work ourselves even with an experienced agent

It's not about finding the house necessarily. Of course you can look on the internet yourself. It's about getting the best price, terms and conditions and having someone advocate for you, someone who understands how to protect your interests. I would say 50 percent or more of my clients are attorneys and most of the time they need as much guidance as any other client. This year I had clients who wanted to purchase a house and were willing to write an offer about $40k over where I thought they should go, no escalation clause.,They got the house with the price I recommended saving them $40k. I had clients who didn't understand the property condition paragraph because their prior agent didn't do the right thing so they thought they were responsible for getting the stuff left at the house at the walkthrough out themselves. With an excellent home inspector, I helped prevent two clients from purchasing homes, both likely with structural issues. I could say more but the thing that bothers me so much about this site is that people routinely trash realtors for not adding value to a transaction but also want to use inexperienced agents who will give them a piece of their commission, people who have horrible realtors who won't write a bad review, people are so nasty about the lack of education needed to be a realtor. Yes that is true and I wish that would change but I don't know of one agent who doesnt have at least a bachelor's degree. You do need to be careful about who you pick to represent you as is true in any field. A doctor at Hopkins killed my brother, my sister's divorce lawyer is milking her for every cent he can get. Etc. My two cents today. And last thought, if you think realtors don't add value, don't yourself and negotiate a credit to give you some or all of the commission that your buyer's agent would've received.

Best price? Agents get paid more when the house sells for more. Your interest are 180 degrees opposite from your clients. If you were a lawyer, that fee structure would be malpractice.

How do you protect anyone’s interest? If there are contingencies, the buyer chooses whether or not to sign off (often with pressure from the agent to sign off). It’s not like you can write anything extra into a boilerplate contract - at least nothing extra that a seller would accept

You obviously didnt understand any thing that I said.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: my sister's divorce lawyer is milking her for every cent he can get

Maybe your sisters divorce lawyer is being paid by the other adverse party? Oh wait, that conflict of interest wouldn't be allowed. That's only allowed in the corrupt real estate industry, because "value".

[Anonymous]

This is not a thing.

[Anonymous]

This is very common. I ended up buying 2 properties in Virginia and used Subba Kolla as my agent and ended up getting back everything above 1% from the commission he received.

Most of the agents don't do significant work to deserve 2 or 3% commission and it's about time they started sharing