Realtor Offering 1% Back (Austin, West, Westlake: for sale, real estate, health insurance)

[AustinMom2Boys]

We are looking to buy a house in the Northwest Hills/Barton Hills/Westlake/Tarrytown/Brykerwoods area, and we are in the process of interviewing agents. Because we are experienced homeowners (times two) who generally know what we want, we are looking for an experienced agent who is willing to give us 1% back. Please DM me if you have an agent recommendation to pass on. Or, feel free to DM your own name if you are an agent offering such a rebate, as I have some interview questions for you.

By the way, we already sold our house in another city and are only looking to buy, not sell.

Thanks in advance for your help!

[centralaustinite]

Usually you can only get a rebate if the same agent is helping you sell and buy.

good luck!

[springbean]

Originally Posted by centralaustinite

Usually you can only get a rebate if the same agent is helping you sell and buy.

good luck!

Yep, that's how we're doing it. We get 1% back after we sell our current home and purchase a new one.

If you're only buying I think you should be considering a realtor that is willing to neg. their rate by 1%, not give you 1% back. It's all about negotiating.

[texasgirl1]

When we sold our old home and bought a new one, we only had to pay 3% to the buyers agent and 1% to our realtor;

then on the purchase of the new home, they were offering 6% realtor bonuses and we negotiatied that our realtor only got 1.5% of that and we got the remaining 4.5%

never hurts to ask for more

[austin_mommy]

Wow. Those were two great deals. Mind sharing the names? You can probably PM me if you don't want to mention any names on the forum.

[TexasHorseLady]

Originally Posted by texasgirl1

When we sold our old home and bought a new one, we only had to pay 3% to the buyers agent and 1% to our realtor;

then on the purchase of the new home, they were offering 6% realtor bonuses and we negotiatied that our realtor only got 1.5% of that and we got the remaining 4.5%

never hurts to ask for more

Did you use the same agent for selling and buying? (As said above, agents are more likely to give a break on the commission in that case, though the smart ones do it on the buy side, not the sell side.)

Also, to clarify, that bonus was on top of their usual co-broke, correct? So they got the usual co-broke plus the 1.5% bonus?

[texasgirl1]

It was a broker, so I'm sure that helps (I don't know all the details of being a realtor)

They both sold our home and represented us with the new one. It was somewhat of a "move up" program. And this was 3 years ago.

My husband is a hard negotiator.

[achtungpv]

Maybe one day, Redfin (Online Real Estate - Homes for Sale and Experienced Real Estate Agents | Redfin) will move into Austin...they charge a 3% commission but return 2/3 of it to the buyer. (unless TX is one of the states currently barring rebates like this)

[RandyAH]

Wow, I don't know that I would want to work with an agent willing to give up all of there fee, or in this case a big chunk..Sounds shady to me..If I were an agent in Austin, I think I would be incline to pass on representing someone that wanted to nego (play hard ball) usually those are the ones that are a PITA, and you wouldn't want to deal with them anyway...I mean, that's just my .02 worth...

Now if a new home builder was offering a huge bonus on top of normal commissions, then of course, nothing wrong with throwing the client a bone, or a plasma or something...you can't buy that kind of referral...

[austin-steve]

There are a lot of hungry, suffering agents in Austin right now, so if you shop around, you'll find one willing to discount their fee. Most of the busy ones I know won't though. We (wife and I) never have except for move-up buyers, who get !% off the listing fee.

There is a discount Broker in town who will represent you for 1% and rebate the other 2% to you at closing, last I heard.

Maybe one day, Redfin (Online Real Estate - Homes for Sale and Experienced Real Estate Agents | Redfin) will move into Austin...they charge a 3% commission but return 2/3 of it to the buyer. (unless TX is one of the states currently barring rebates like this)

Oh, my favorite topic. I follow Redfin with interest, even though they don't serve Austin. I just wrote a long Blog article about them ditching the 2/3 rebate and going to a 50% rebate, and now offering "unlimited tours". They've let go of a bunch of employees and are finding that the "limited service with a discount" model doesn't work as well in the real world as it does on paper.

Bottom line, a typical successful Realtor will see about 43% of gross commission income make it to the bottom line, and then pay health insurance and self-employment taxes from that. Therefore, one cannot give away half their income and survive long term. There is no way a company can squeeze better efficiencies out of the buyer rep process without somehow increasing the closing rate of buyers, or the time required to complete a buyer side sale.

Redfin tried to work around this at first by not showing homes at all. Then they started showing homes for a $250 fee for 3 hours. That has failed and now they show "unlimited homes" (just like traditional Realtors) but have changed the rebate to 50% instead of 65%. That still doesn't leave a big enough profit margin, even in the high priced areas in which they concentrate, so we'll see further adjustments by them as the economic realities of a slow market continue to humble them and others like them.

That said, the OP should be able to find an at least adequate Austin agent willing to rebate some of the commission. Google search reveals some candidates.

Steve