Do you think it's possible to negotiate this commission arrangment with our agent??

[Anonymous]

Or will he laugh in our face? He will be our buyers and selling agent so we want to offer him 3% on our purchase and 1% on our sale. We are buying up in a limited area. We know what we want and are the types of buyers that will do most of the research ourselves. It will be an easy commission for him. On the selling side, we live in a pretty hot area so we believe our house will sell fast but we really need to maximize what the cash we get out of it.

We have an existing relationship with him as he helped us buy our first house. If he's not amenable then we're likely to go with a Redfin agent on the buying side in order to save some cash.

What do you think?

[Anonymous]

You can always ask. We did 3% on list and 2% on sale.

[Anonymous]

I mean 3% on listing and 2% on the buy side.

[Anonymous]

What benefit do you get, as a buyer, paying your agent a lower commission? Is this disclosed in your offer?

[Anonymous]

Feels aggressive to me. For starters, the 3% on the purchase isnt something you can really dictate as you don't control it - nor do you pay it (what if the house you are buying only offers him 2% as a buyers agent? You going to give him the extra 1% out of your own pocket?), and as his company will take a cut.

And 1% seems really low on the sales side - listing on MRS, showing the house, making a virtual tour, etc all costs money. And again, his company will take a cut. If anything you might agree on a structured or tiered pricing. If it sells within 30 days, he gets 5%, if within 60, 4%, if > than that, he gets 3%. But...Keep in mind too that if you screw him on the sale side, he might not be able to offer a buyers agent (on your home) a reasonable deal. Last thing you want is potential agents taking buyers elsewhere because your house has no payoff for them. And trust me, realtors will know.

Personally, if i was your realtor, id tell you to go pound sand. You are basically asking him to charge you nothing and just sell your house for free because he gets to be your realtor on the buy side. People do what they are incented to do.... in this case, youd be incenting him to not give a shit about your house selling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What benefit do you get, as a buyer, paying your agent a lower commission? Is this disclosed in your offer?

When I did it, I had my agent kick back 1.5% to me. I bought a $900,000 house. Buyers agent commission, he got a check for $27,000 and he cut me a check for $13,500. Basically, I structured it so I paid $886,500 for my house instead of $900,000.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What benefit do you get, as a buyer, paying your agent a lower commission? Is this disclosed in your offer?

Sorry, I'm confusing even myself. 2% on the listing b/c they got 3% on the buy side. It's been a long week.

[Anonymous]

Does the 1% you are offering him on your listing include the 3% he will need to offer the buyer's agent? Or will he need to pay the buyer's agent himself?

[Anonymous]

If you think the buyer's agent duties will be an easy lift, why not just use the agent to sell your house (with, say, 2.5 percent commission) and just hire a real estate attorney to handle the contracts when you buy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you think the buyer's agent duties will be an easy lift, why not just use the agent to sell your house (with, say, 2.5 percent commission) and just hire a real estate attorney to handle the contracts when you buy?

Because that's leaving money on the table. In that scenario they pay an attorney to handle the buy. In the other they get money from their agent.