This week in a Listing Agent class  there were several folks seeking brokers licenses continuing hours and this questions was spoke about.  The general consensus in our market here in Austin Texas was,,  we take buyers to a home they are looking for.. so if your house has 3 bedrooms and my buyers are looking for 4 bedrooms your house is eliminated .. sometimes because it doesn't appear on my search criteria. but mostly because I am trying to sell the right home, the one my buyer is looking for, not the one that pays the highest IF i get it sold. 

If two homes were alike and one had a higher commission would I ask the buyer to consider it more? possibly, and maybe I could offer to share that extra incentive commission to pay down their closing costs .. is that undue influence ?  I dont think so.. its giving them the buyer information to aid them in making an informed decision.   The final decision on a purchase is always the buyers.

If a seller is willing to add to the commission of the buyers agent.. why not drop the price of the home and attract those buyers who are ready to purchase?

A higher BAC certainly gets my attention but it still comes down to having a client that wants the property. I also still have the fiduciary responsibility to my clients needs and wants rather than my own pocket. Dropping the price would probably get more attention of buyers since most buyers today do much of their shopping online before contacting an agent.

I think that a higher selling commission doesn't drive traffic as much as a lower selling commission slows traffic.  I know that with my buyers, their agency agreement states a minimum commission that I will receive, and many of my buyers don't want to see them until they exhaust other options.  

Hi Gail and Jerry

both very valid submissions - thanks, your thinking seems to be in line with what i have always felt and that was a lower price would do more to sell your clients properties than an increased commission

i guess there may be some merit in an increased motivation to the agent, but that is three agents from all over the US who agree that a reduced price is better - does this qualify as a straw survey then??

that sums it up really well Lane - thanks for that - i totally agree with you - lower selling commission does slow traffic - now that we have 4 agents agreeing it is an official poll is it not, we can quote it on CNN!!!

I tried it on a property I had, even emailed the new co-broke out to agents so they KNEW about it-it didn't do a thing.  On another real estate site I belong to many of the agents say they show the higher co-brokes first.  I think we owe it to our buyer clients to show them the properties THEY are interested in, even if the co-broke is 'only' a flat fee.  In the long run, aren't happy clients and a successful closing the most important thing?

hi jennofer

you are totally right - a happy client is the main objective and i do not for one minute think that a higher BAC would induce an agent to do anything not in the best interests of their clients (well i would hope not) what i was wondering was whether it did act as an additional motivation to get agents to show properties, present them to clients where they may not have without the extra incentive - things like that

never mess with our professionalism and fiduciary duties to our clients