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In showing you 12 houses, it sounds like the agent must have put a lot of work into researching options, writing up offers that didn't get accepted, gas money etc. (That's a lot of hours). I would try to be very fair. Good on you!
In showing you 12 houses, it sounds like the agent must have put a lot of work into researching options, writing up offers that didn't get accepted, gas money etc. (That's a lot of hours). I would try to be very fair. Good on you!
Agreed, a very nice gesture! It shows that you have class.
To the O.P:
It is NICE of you to think of the time and effort your agent put in on your case, and to want to compensate him/her for their services.
You COULD handle it a number of ways.
1} pay him a flat $1000 and be done with it.
2}pay him a half % of what you bought: that is:$1250 and be done with it.
3} pay him a full 1% of your home's cost: that is $2500 and be done wiht it.
You don't actually OWE them anything. It's a risk they take to show people houses and write up offers. If they showed you 150 houses, wrote up 100 offers, and counters, and only got a scant 1/2 or1%, or even at 3%, they have invested lots of time and energy into GETTING that %. There also MAY NEVER be a sale! It's a risk for them.
However, since you DID find a house, it's nice to compensate them wiht something if you feel you desire to.
There is a cost of doing business in all self-employed occupations, and the reason a realtor makes a lot on an easy sale is to compensate for all the ones that don't work out. In my owned business (professional but not a realtor), I made out very well on some projects which balanced out the higher-hanging (or no) fruit.
You acted in good faith, and would have purchased one of the homes you made an offer on but it didn't work out. Maybe another realtor could have made one of those work. Not taking anything away from yours, but realtors are not all equal.
Regardless, I think a gesture is lovely. $500 is the most I personally would give him/her. You have to pay an attorney to advise with the contract, and did - after all - find the home yourself.
Except for once, when we didn't have our son with us, we always took our car and followed our realtor. We had to do it that way since he's still in a car seat/booster.
We're supposed to sign the sales agreement with the sellers tomorrow, so we'll have some time to decide how we wan tot compensate our realtor. We want to leave it on good terms in case we need to use him the future.
We were in a similar situation buying a FSBO after our realtor took us around the neighborhood and we actually came across the FSBO passing by. She had only taken us around twice. We felt bad but we didn't award her anything for her efforts. I doubt they expect anything either. If you feel bad, I'd give them a $100 gift card or more if you feel comfortable. It sounds like pennies in the grand scheme but really, agents don't get anything for every client even if they were with them for 6 months anyway.
EDIT>> agree with poster above. $500 is even a lot of money for new homeowners who have a lot ahead of them. None (as in $0) of the commission was supposed to come out of the OP's pocket since it comes from the seller's take.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think and agent is only supposed to get paid by the employing broker. I would make sure you keep this on the up-n-up and ask that question before giving the agent any money. You'd hate to see her get into trouble for accepting it without going through the broker.
But again, I could be wrong. It's just something I read. Maybe some agents or brokers will respond.
It's enlightening to hear that you want to compensate him for his time as its such a rarity to encounter fair people in the industry! I would compensate him for his time at a fair hourly rate and expenses. That is all you can do. He should be more than happy that your giving him that if he is reasonable given that you have no obligation to give him anything and he's probably dealt with the situation before and gotten screwed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think and agent is only supposed to get paid by the employing broker. I would make sure you keep this on the up-n-up and ask that question before giving the agent any money. You'd hate to see her get into trouble for accepting it without going through the broker.
But again, I could be wrong. It's just something I read. Maybe some agents or brokers will respond.
Yes, the brokerage is the one that will get the money and they will give a cut of that to the agent depending on their agreement/split.
Thanks Silverfall. Would the agent be able to accept a gratuity if (s)he brought it straight to the employing broker? Or does the agent simply refuse to accept it? In this case, there was no contract, so it really is just a gratuity.
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