Is 6% commission too high?

[Margery]

There are many independent brokers, usually a 1 or 2 person company, who will do a fee for service listing or will work with buyers on a fee for service plan and rebate part of the commission to the buyer as Redfin does. The big name brokerages cannot do this because of the corporate staff who have to be paid. You do not need a mega brokerage or a team of 5 to 6 people to sell your home, we all have the same exposure on the MLS to sell your home and all buyer agents have the same access to the listings available.

[ricorog]

Fairfax Mom, you make a great point, thank you for your insight! and view, you have help me.

[info781]

After reading this I am on the side of Fairfax Mom. Realtors will do everything to convince you that 6% is a magical number, a line in the sand and anything less will cost your dearly. In the end 6% is just a number. With low interest rates house prices have gone way up as people buy on monthly payment, not total price. This has been a windfall for agents in this area. If houses are selling quickly and you are paying 6% you are not thinking. I see agents hustling hard to sell a 150k condo in Atlanta and they are going to get $4500 in the end. I see agent doing the same amount of work to sell a 600k condo here to make 18k.
Also run very fast from anyone who says "you get what you pay for". The movement of 401(k) money from mutual funds with high management fees to low fee ETF's can attest to that, people know when they are getting ripped off. I don't believe in low balling that can backfire big time , but asking for 5% instead of 6% that is reasonable.

[YellowKing]

Real estate in this area basically sells itself. 6% (30 grand on a standard 500K condo) is a crazy fee in an era where 95% of everything is completed online.

When I purchased my place, I did all the research, found the open houses, researched comps, looked at tax/school information, all of that on a number of sites. Where my buyers agent came in handy was with the final paperwork and all of that stuff. That should be worth 1% IMO..

My fear if I list my place with something like redfin or FSBO, all of the buyer's agents will be too bitter to actually point their customers in my direction, so foot traffic will be significantly lower.

Make no mistake though, real estate agents as a traditional service will not last much longer in their current state.

[victor20170]

Originally Posted by YellowKing

My fear if I list my place with something like redfin or FSBO, all of the buyer's agents will be too bitter to actually point their customers in my direction, so foot traffic will be significantly lower.

The way I understood Redfin is that you as the seller get a discount for selling your home through them. So instead of the regular 3% fee, you'll only pay 1.5%. The buyer's real state agent will still get their full 3%.

At the end of the day, you end up paying a 4.5% fee, not the typical 6% (both agents). On a 500k home, that's $7,500 in savings, so that's not bad at all.

In any case, I don't see why the buyer's agent wouldn't take their clients to see your home