How much are your Real Estate fees?

How Much Will Your Realtor® Cost You When Selling Or Buying a Home?

"How much are your Real Estate fees," is a popular question that comes up with clients and the answer varies whether you are seller or a buyer. There are a variety of ways that commissions can be structured but I’ll go over the basic ones that a seller or buyer would need to be concerned with.

How Much Are Your Real Estate Fees To Sell My House?

As a seller you sign a listing agreement with a specific brokerage. Although you probably have an agent from that brokerage working with you, your contract is with the actual brokerage or broker-in-charge not with that agent. Within that agreement there will be a section that discusses commission. The commission is paid directly to the broker as only the broker-in-charge can be paid a commission. You can negotiate the fees to list your home as there are no set commission rates.

Brokers will have certain rates they feel comfortable accepting as they know what their expenses are for handling your listing such as advertising fees, the value of their time and other expenses. Part of the commission you will negotiate and agree to pay the broker representing you will be paid to the procuring selling agent, or the broker that finds a buyer for your property. This leads me to the discussion of how much it will cost a buyer to have an agent represent them to find a home to buy.                  

How Much Are Your Real Estate Fees To Help Me Find a Home to Buy?

The most common answer to this question is $0, NOTHING, MY SERVICE IS FREE! Wow, for those that are familiar with buyer representation and the pros of being represented when purchasing a home you will understand how amazing it is that you do not have to pay for it. The reason that as a buyer you do not have to pay anything to the agent working with you is that the broker representing the seller will pay the broker your agent works for a commission who then pays your agent.

Some buyer’s ask the question “if the seller is in the end paying your commission then are you still working for me or the seller?” Your agent and their broker are still working for you. A simple way to look at this situation is the seller’s broker is paying the buyer’s broker a fee as a thank you for finding a buyer for the house they are trying to sell. If the seller’s broker had procured the buyer then they would have kept the entire commission and not paid anything out to another broker.             

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