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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Am planning to list either 2025/2026. Will have it in the listing that offers should include their requested buyers fee. So it will play one factor among others in the offers. If someone offers a great price and no buyers fee needed we will look very closely at it. If someone offers the highest price and a 2% for buyers fee but we end up with more, we'll look closely at it. It's all about what we walk away with at the end of the day.

Do agree in principle buyers need to assume some of the costs themselves. Not clear on the role agents play that justifies setting aside 5-4% in commission. Like most people, we found our house, not the agent. The agent was a highly reputable agent but pretty much didn't do much other than fill out some paperwork. Impressive. [/quote]

I am a listing agent within a small brokerage and I don’t see any benefit in sellers to commit paying a fixed buyer broker fee. What a seller usually care about is the net price and terms.

On my last few listings I only got a couple of inquiries from buyer agents asking whether the seller was offering a fixed amount of buyer agent commission upfront. My response is always something like “The seller will be happy to consider an offer with a request for closing cost assistance towards a buyer agent fee. The seller cares about terms and the net price when comparing offers.  We would love to see an offer from your client.”

In my experience most buyers still use (and benefit) from a buyer agent. Most buyer agents just show the home and then the buyer asks for closing costs in their offer (that they may or may not be using towards their agent fees.)

Sellers benefit when encouraging everyone to view and make offers on their home - regardless of whether they have an agent or not. However, up to this point, I haven't found a reason to recommend a seller make an *upfront* offer of compensation to buyer agents.

So, find and pay for a listing agent that will give you the best value. Warmly welcome anyone to view and tour your home. Review the offers for overall best terms and net price, and don’t worry about how much the buyer agent is paid on the “buyer side” of the closing statement.

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You sound like a very calm experienced agent. I tried to sell a home once without an agent about 17 years ago in a different market - not my choice but we got an offer on our home that was off the market. Eventually the seller asked us to draft all the contracts and wanted the full 5% refunded to them. We found that it was impossible to satisfy them because they wanted the realtor fees refunded, wanted us to do about 20-30 hours worth of work and then wanted the house at some ridiculously low price because they needed a deal since there were no agents. We didn't even have to sell so it was just a big chaotic mess. We realized that as the seller, there was no way to come out ahead without an agent helping us. My point is that an experienced selling agent gets the deal done by bringing logic, fairness and calmness to a transaction that can be emotional. They deserve to be well compensated.

That said, I think in higher end markets like DC, maybe our commission percentage is a bit high but nothing wrong with negotiating that up front!

And we also had an agent on a different transaction who made us make up .5% of the fee because a bank owning a foreclosure offered less than the 3% she wanted. We did it but we felt we had no choice. I wouldn't do that again. i felt she should have told us this when we showed the house or put it in the contract.

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