Anonymous
01/23/2025 15:18
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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 $$$ to throw away, or not…
For argument sakes, a 1.5 mil property in great condition in a desirable location will sell easily these days. Assuming the seller will list at a reasonable price based on comps and sellers agent agrees with listing price, how many hours of work are we talking about for the sellers agent? 10-20 hrs?
Let’s be generous and say it’s 40 hours of work and give a rate of $150/hr. That’s $6000 or a commission of 0.4%.
Negotiate hard people. It’s your $$$ to throw away, or not…
Anonymous
01/23/2025 11:04
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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.
I don't understand how realtors can blacklist it. Once upon a time that would have made sense, because only agents had access to the MLS and would know what was for sale. Now motivated buyers stalk Zillow and know exactly what's on the market. And if an agent said they wouldn't show me that house I would fire that agent. Seriously -- pls explain to me how this would work.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 10:15
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
Re flat fees, that is presumably on a per offer basis (and fair if so). No agent is going to endlessly open doors to houses / submit offers for a few thousand.
I'm a buyer and what I'm seeing: good buyer's agents (part of the "in" crowd) still want to lock you up with an agreement, but are willing to go down on commission. In our case, we signed an agreement with a buyer agent commission of 1.5%, and feel like it's decent value for close-in DC/MOCO where we'll likely see 10-20 houses, make as many offers as it takes in a competitive market with low inventory. While it was true that you could always ask for a rebate, top buyer's agents are much more open to negotiating their commission relative to a few years ago when we were last on the market.
I'm a buyer and what I'm seeing: good buyer's agents (part of the "in" crowd) still want to lock you up with an agreement, but are willing to go down on commission. In our case, we signed an agreement with a buyer agent commission of 1.5%, and feel like it's decent value for close-in DC/MOCO where we'll likely see 10-20 houses, make as many offers as it takes in a competitive market with low inventory. While it was true that you could always ask for a rebate, top buyer's agents are much more open to negotiating their commission relative to a few years ago when we were last on the market.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 09:37
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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.
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.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 08:42
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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?
Not PP, but looking hard in NoVA right now and I'm not seeing things "sitting on the market" at all. And I have no idea how PP would know that anything that is "sitting" is doing so due to this commission issue -- and I highly doubt it.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 08:24
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:What then is a fair agreement between a buyer and their agent? The new form agreement everyone gets asked to sign wants 3% with the buyer obligated to negotiate this with the seller or pay the difference. Plus another small fee on top. Seems like 2.5%?
I think it really should depend on the amount of work done. Agent takes you to 20 open houses over the course of six months? Or you call agent about a house you saw on Zillow and they write up the offer? Very different amounts of work and should be paid accordingly. But I’m not sure why the seller should pay for it. They’re paying their agent for doing work on their house.
No agent in this world is worth 2.5%, period. New commission is a flat fee of a couple of thousand $ss.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 08:22
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
Anonymous wrote: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.
By saying “no”.
Shop around. I recently did a deal for 0.5% and another for a flat fee of $2500. The commission has come down drastically and you don't get till you ask. Some crooked agents are still looking for suckers so don't be one.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 07:49
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
Anonymous wrote:What then is a fair agreement between a buyer and their agent? The new form agreement everyone gets asked to sign wants 3% with the buyer obligated to negotiate this with the seller or pay the difference. Plus another small fee on top. Seems like 2.5%?
I think it really should depend on the amount of work done. Agent takes you to 20 open houses over the course of six months? Or you call agent about a house you saw on Zillow and they write up the offer? Very different amounts of work and should be paid accordingly. But I’m not sure why the seller should pay for it. They’re paying their agent for doing work on their house.
Anonymous
01/23/2025 06:23
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
What then is a fair agreement between a buyer and their agent? The new form agreement everyone gets asked to sign wants 3% with the buyer obligated to negotiate this with the seller or pay the difference. Plus another small fee on top. Seems like 2.5%?
Anonymous
01/22/2025 16:39
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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.
Yup- almost surely against the terms of the settlement. Also very much against the sellers interest- why would you want fewer offers? Anyone saying they won't consider an offer below list is irrational, and that is indicative of someone pricing too high. So sounds like the real issue is too high a price in the end, not the buyers commission part.
Anonymous
01/22/2025 15:12
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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.
Anonymous
01/22/2025 14:08
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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!!
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!!
Anonymous
01/22/2025 14:01
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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.
Anonymous
01/22/2025 13:58
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
Anonymous wrote:I am paying my agent, who has represented me for 30 years, the same 5% I have for decades. I know he will get me a top price in return.
Are you buying or selling? And you're paying that much for half of the transaction? Five percent to either is historically high...and a bit insane. But you do you.
Anonymous
01/22/2025 13:23
Subject: Buyer's agent fees
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.
By saying “no”.