Buyer's agent fees

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have real world data?

Agents from both Compass and Sotheby's are insistent that they are not permitted by their brokerage to agree to less than 2.5%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have real world data?

Agents from both Compass and Sotheby's are insistent that they are not permitted by their brokerage to agree to less than 2.5%

BS: I've spoken to multiple Compass agents who are willing to do 2% (not like that's a bargain!) So maybe their is a brokerage-wide floor, but it's not 2.5%.

[Anonymous]

If relators blacklist it then they are opening up for lawsuits again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a buyer and a realtor is asking for 3% commission, negotiated with the seller but it's my job to pay her the difference if the seller doesn't agree.

How are other people handling this? For a $2M home, $30K feels awfully rich for opening a few doors. There's no world where I'm going to pay a realtor 10x more money than I earn per hour.

So get a different agent. Or work with the listing agent directly. I don’t understand the problem.

Or

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In NoVA, not MD, but our very aggressive agent is putting down 2.5% buyer agent commission paid by sellers on offers.

How’s that working? Serious question?

I guess it’s a little too early to tell?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I tried offering 2% when I sold and my house sat in a hot neighborhood - pretty sure the local realtors were blacklisting it. Was told by my realtor that I needed to go up to at least 2.5% because 2% simply wasn’t done in the neighborhood. I did and sold within a few weeks, although the buyers agent complained that I wasn’t offering 3%!

Another house in the neighborhood being sold by a discount agent also took much longer than normal to sell and ultimately the buyer was represented by another discount agent. I had been by a top selling agent whom I had interviewed but didn’t hire that she would steer buyers away from discount agents because they and their sellers were “difficult.”

Sample size of 2, but I would be careful out there. I think it’s disgusting, but seems the reality right now, at least certain places.

They were saying the same thing with us but we ended up negotiating 1% fee and it was under contract in Fairfax within one week. Don't let them scare you and stay aggressive about negotiations.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In NoVA, not MD, but our very aggressive agent is putting down 2.5% buyer agent commission paid by sellers on offers.

Same - 2.5% seems to be the norm for nova for a full-service buyers agent - we had some agents offer to do it for 2% but they made it clear they wouldn't do much except communicate the offer.

Anecdotally we are seeing that a majority of the houses sitting on the market in close-in nova (~$1M) - if otherwise priced decently - are sitting because the seller isn't covering the buyer's agent commission and won't adjust the price to reflect the buyer having to pay the commission out of pocket.

How have you determined this is the reason?

Ima guess that houses that sell more quickly have sellers agreeing to pay the buyer agent commission. It’s not hard to understand. For one thing, it’s common sense. You may quibble about the percentage but paying a buyer fee is an age-old concept in market making.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In NoVA, not MD, but our very aggressive agent is putting down 2.5% buyer agent commission paid by sellers on offers.

Same - 2.5% seems to be the norm for nova for a full-service buyers agent - we had some agents offer to do it for 2% but they made it clear they wouldn't do much except communicate the offer.

Anecdotally we are seeing that a majority of the houses sitting on the market in close-in nova (~$1M) - if otherwise priced decently - are sitting because the seller isn't covering the buyer's agent commission and won't adjust the price to reflect the buyer having to pay the commission out of pocket.

Why wouldn't the buyer just write an offer for what they think the house is worth, less agent fees? The list price is just a suggestion.

Because PP is full of sh*t and a fear mongering realtor.

Oh, it’s you. The bitter poster who accuses anyone who contradicts her of being an agent.

Ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In NoVA, not MD, but our very aggressive agent is putting down 2.5% buyer agent commission paid by sellers on offers.

Same - 2.5% seems to be the norm for nova for a full-service buyers agent - we had some agents offer to do it for 2% but they made it clear they wouldn't do much except communicate the offer.

Anecdotally we are seeing that a majority of the houses sitting on the market in close-in nova (~$1M) - if otherwise priced decently - are sitting because the seller isn't covering the buyer's agent commission and won't adjust the price to reflect the buyer having to pay the commission out of pocket.

That makes no sense. If it's not selling it's priced too high. The commission may be part of that but you wouldn't be able to separate that out.
Also, our (sellers) agent told us the opposite: in competitive situations she's seeing buyers paying the agent commission to stand up.

I generally think you are correct. However I expecting buyers to pay their own agent will affect their cashflow for their down payment and other closing costs, so digging in on this does naturally shrink your pool of buyers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm the PP who mentioned some houses are sitting that aren't covering buyer commission at/under $1M list price in close-in nova. I'm not a realtor (lobbyist, so pretty far from a realtor lol) - but am in the market looking to buy a SFH in Arlington right now.

We know the seller not covering the buyer agent commission is why certain houses are sitting because the listing agent is literally telling our agent that directly when our agent calls them to inquire on the property. Not sure if the sellers agent should be doing that (I would assume not??) but they are - I think we've had 5 listing agents so far say the seller will not cover the buyer agent commission and will not take an offer below list that reflects the buyer having to pay the buyer agent %.

But like I said in my original post it's anecdotal and based on my experience - didn't mean to trigger this thread!!

There are fewer than 20 homes in the 1M range in Arlington right now. Half have been on the market for less than two weeks.

I'm not doubting your experience. But I maintain that doesn't make sense. It also still screams a real estate agent trying to scare buyers into offering a commission.

It’s also a really bad time of the year for selling homes and has been for the last 60 days or so. This is an annual phenomenon.

We should revisit this discussion in May.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have real world data?

Agents from both Compass and Sotheby's are insistent that they are not permitted by their brokerage to agree to less than 2.5%

That is probably true. And also true for most of the legacy brokerages.

There have always been cut-rate alternatives. They are a viable alternative if you’re obsessed with commission instead of more important things that matter. But you typically will get what you pay for.

And before our easily triggered poster accuses me, no I am not an agent or involved in the industry in any way.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone use a flat fee for selling?

For argument sakes, a 1.5 mil property in great condition in a desirable location will sell easily these days. Assuming the seller will list at a reasonable price based on comps and sellers agent agrees with listing price, how many hours of work are we talking about for the sellers agent? 10-20 hrs?

Let’s be generous and say it’s 40 hours of work and give a rate of $150/hr. That’s $6000 or a commission of 0.4%.

Negotiate hard people. It’s your $$$ to throw away, or not…

Houses sell themselves until they don’t. For any number of reasons.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In NoVA, not MD, but our very aggressive agent is putting down 2.5% buyer agent commission paid by sellers on offers.

How’s that working? Serious question?

I guess it’s a little too early to tell?

Yes, too early to tell. We've only made two offers and both were rejected outright (even with cash offers with escalation clauses above asking, sigh -- it's rough out here, lol). So negotiating the buyer's agent compensation hasn't come up (yet).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Anyone use a flat fee for selling?

For argument sakes, a 1.5 mil property in great condition in a desirable location will sell easily these days. Assuming the seller will list at a reasonable price based on comps and sellers agent agrees with listing price, how many hours of work are we talking about for the sellers agent? 10-20 hrs?

Let’s be generous and say it’s 40 hours of work and give a rate of $150/hr. That’s $6000 or a commission of 0.4%.

Negotiate hard people. It’s your $$$ to throw away, or not…

best advice. The RE community are parasites. Its the market that really determines your net gain/loss. Don't lock in an entitled comission to the buyer - assuming you are selling. If your property is desirable, you will get more....the eventual buyer will be forced to pay their agent the fees - NOT YOU. This is the entire point of the recent judgement. Don't, never specify any comission to the buyers agent.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone have real world data?

Agents from both Compass and Sotheby's are insistent that they are not permitted by their brokerage to agree to less than 2.5%

BS: I've spoken to multiple Compass agents who are willing to do 2% (not like that's a bargain!) So maybe there is a brokerage-wide floor, but it's not 2.5%.

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same with my experience with compass. Sotheby only deals with high end properties and the commission on those is huge.