Listing Your Property…
Thinking of listing your home?
You’ve been reading in the media about all the lawsuits against brokers alleging everything from “bloated commissions” to wrong-doing.
Commissions have always been negotiable between the Listing Broker and the Seller.
The concerns have centered around whether or not the buyer’s agent should be paid by the listing broker. The lawsuit settlements point to a big shift in commission payments to buyer brokers. For now we are doing business as usual, awaiting the final legal decisions.
What are your concerns?
It’s not the gross sale price of your home that you are concerned with, but what you walk away with. Example: You sell your house for $500,000. You pay 5% in commissions. You had a loan on it for $325,000. Your closing costs were 2%. You walked away with $140,000. Technically, every 1% is equal to $5,000.
These are the options for the buyer of your home:
You can pay the agent with your own funds
You can enter into a buyer broker agreement and hope the seller of the property you are going to see will pay the buyer’s agent
You can find a property and ask the seller to pay your buyer agent through a “seller concession” area in the offer you make to the seller
You can go directly to the listing broker to see the property and be represented as a dual agent or be unrepresented
You will have to sign a buyer broker agreement just to see a property with a buyer agent
Over the years the system has produced reasonably fast property sales, and many times it included a reduction in commissions asked for during the negotiations. That was then, this is now. Buyer brokers will have to find a way to get paid.
The decision will rest with the seller on whether or not to offer to pay a buyer broker commission, either through the listing broker agreement, or as a concession in the purchase contract.
Time is money…