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My house is under contract and the agreed upon commission was 6%. The house sold pretty quick and I've made the comment that the agent didn't have to do too much and of course that rattled them. According to them, their share of the 6% is very low.
So I'm curious if anyone has an ideal of about what this is for the actual agent. I do know this agent is fairly new to the business, so I'm guessing it's low. Let just use $200000 selling price for easy numbers. How much of 12000 actually goes to the listing agent in someones good guess?
There's no way of providing you with any useful info in this regard except to say that it varies...a lot. However, here is the most useful info I can offer you. You have a contract with this brokerage to sell your home for x% and I gather from your post that there is nothing in your contract that reduces (or increases) the rate based on the number of days on market.
I get your point and you are not the first to think about this but let it go. You made a deal, signed a contract, and now you are wondering if it was a good idea. Let it go, be happy that they got you a buyer in a short time, and now just expect them to be sure to make it across the finish line with no delays or issues.
The house is under contract quickly which should mean the agent did a good job of pricing it right and marketing it well in the photos and description to get the property looked at. They may also have run paid advertisements to make sure people saw it quick. Would you have thought they should earn more if it sat on the market a long time? I doubt it.
I bet if you look in your listing agreement, it will show the percentage of the total that will be paid to the buyer's agent. Our contract does. Our contracts always split 50-50 with buyer's agent. Others vary.
Your agent's share will then be split with his brokerage, and team if he's part of a team. Those percentages very widely.
You can ask. We've had clients ask. It shouldn't be a secret.
Most important: Your agent is NOT done yet. There is much still to do, to facilitate and negotiate the rest of the way to close. There are sometimes -MOST times - important issues that will come up with inspection, appraisal, and working through any of the issues we've had come up before close, where your agent will be tasked with negotiating for you. IMHO, that's where we earn much of our money: Solving problems and coordinating during the transaction. It's not just about getting an offer. Sometimes that's the easy part.
Well I can tell from these responses that you on that side of the isle and want to defend the agent.
But I will add that the agent did very little other than put the ad on the internet. As far as pictures are concerned, I was totally in charge of this. I asked for help in getting the house ready for pictures and was basically told "no". All they did was call the photographer and I met him there before he took the pictures. Getting the house ready for pictures is the main beef I have. That took a lot of work.
And as far as the house going under contract fast, that's because I set the price right and the house was in very good condition.
There is an old shtick about a man whose factory was shut down because a piece of equipment on the assembly line stopped running. A repairman was called in the middle of the night. He entered the factory with a hammer, walked to the machine and tapped it sharply ... at which point the machine began to run.
He presented the factory owner with a bill for $1000! The owner fretted and fumed, exclaiming, "you spent only ten-minutes here and only hit the machine once! The repairman replied, "Yes, I only charged you $100 for that. I charged you $900 for knowing where to hit the machine!"
If you, like many, believe that 6-percent is too much to pay a Realtor on a home sale, then don't sign an agreement to do so. If you do sign an agreement to do so, be glad if it is sold quickly and doesn't linger on the market, until you finally had to reduce the price 5-10-percent. (or ask if the realtor will reduce the commission if it sells within the first few weeks - or no other agent is involved).
The house is under contract quickly which should mean the agent did a good job of pricing it right and marketing it well in the photos and description to get the property looked at. They may also have run paid advertisements to make sure people saw it quick. Would you have thought they should earn more if it sat on the market a long time? I doubt it.
I bet if you look in your listing agreement, it will show the percentage of the total that will be paid to the buyer's agent. Our contract does. Our contracts always split 50-50 with buyer's agent. Others vary.
Your agent's share will then be split with his brokerage, and team if he's part of a team. Those percentages very widely.
You can ask. We've had clients ask. It shouldn't be a secret.
Most important: Your agent is NOT done yet. There is much still to do, to facilitate and negotiate the rest of the way to close. There are sometimes -MOST times - important issues that will come up with inspection, appraisal, and working through any of the issues we've had come up before close, where your agent will be tasked with negotiating for you. IMHO, that's where we earn much of our money: Solving problems and coordinating during the transaction. It's not just about getting an offer. Sometimes that's the easy part.
Inspection only turned up one thing and I'm the one that has totally handled this.
I guess I will assume the agent makes about $10000 of the 12000. But by no means will I congratulate her or thank her. Way to many times she has talked to me and said "you", rather than "we".
The agent is really only a 3rd party of the sell in this situation.
I also bought a house with this agent and she failed on many, many fronts in hind site. So the sooner this transaction is done, the better.
If the agent is new, they probably DO get a very small cut of the total commission.
It surely will NOT be $10,000.
More likely the agent will see about 1/4 of the $12,000, at best.
So, maybe $3,000. Before taxes and expenses.
Maybe less if there is a franchise fee to be paid.
If the firm has a policy that a newbie will work with and compensate a mentor for support and guidance, that could be another 20-30% off the $3,000.
You would have felt a lot better if the house took 6 months to sell ? You and the agent form a team. Did you price the house correctly ?
A small part of the work is getting a buyer in the door. Negotiating a contract and bringing it to closing is where the real skills of an agent really show. That's where they make or lose you money.
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