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I've noticed on recent settlement statements that the local CB franchise is charging their buyer clients a "Broker Only Commission" of between $200 and $345 in addition to the commission received. Three closings in the last two weeks with this fee were already paying out 3% on prices between $120,000 and $325,000. A former client of this brokerage told me that their standard contract has a pre-printed line at the bottom of the last page stating the brokerage relationship (transaction broker) and that a fee of $345 will be due from the buyer above the commission paid by the seller. She also said that their agent didn't point out this line when she gave them the offer to sign.
Am I crazy or is this out of line? Feels like robbery or, at the very least, a shady way to squeeze a few more bucks out of clients.
Mods: Meant to post this in Real Estate Professionals forum. Please move it if you read this.
Fees are negotiable. If the client doesn't feel the agent is worth the extra money then they won't hire them. The only thing that really sounds shady is that the agent failed to make sure their client understood the contract they were signing.
Discussion of specific fee arrangements outside one's own brokerage in contradiction to all NAR and DOJ standards is a bit foolhardy.
On fees:
Any business person should analyze one's expenses and revenue, and build one's fees to create a net profit to provide a worthwhile professional pursuit.
How anyone else does it is irrelevant, ergo the cautions not to entertain discussions that could be judged to be embracing price fixing.
Ain't that America. Kind of a stretch to think I've engaged in a price fixing discussion with a broker over 1000 miles away who is licensed in another state but I'll choose discretion over valor in this case. I just did a search on this forum for "realtor fees" and got 627 results.
I am duly chastised and warned. Consumers, be aware.
I agree with OP. We are getting fee'd to death. We have all sorts of fees that didn't exist 5 or ten years ago. Just think about renting cars, buying tires, and what's with these BS "application fees?" I'm not paying $25 for the administrative assistant to hit a button on the computer and spit out $0.02 worth of printer paper on a contract I'm signing that is going to make their company money.
I have cable and a few months ago, when I moved to a new house, I signed up for my cable servce to be transferred after several years at my old one. They told me there would be a $99 fee for the technician to come out and hook up the lines. Why should I pay more money to transfer service so I can continue making my cable company a profit, especially when I had been so loyal to them all these years? That wasn't happening. I told them that was garbage and if they didn't waive the fee, they could kiss my 10+ year long happy relationship with them goodbye. I didn't pay it
There are enough brokerages out there that do NOT charge fees that someone who objected to the fee could easily find another broker. My bet is that the users are NOT reading the fine print on the contracts, or they are being presented in such a way as "well, this is MY commission . . . and this is the fee that has to be paid to my office", said in such an off-hand way that it seems accepted.
I remember working in the mortgage industry in the 80's, when "underwriting fees" started getting tacked on. I was adamantly against them, but the way they were finally introduced, the executives in the division's bonuses were based partly on how much additional fee income they could pull in.
There are enough brokerages out there that do NOT charge fees that someone who objected to the fee could easily find another broker. My bet is that the users are NOT reading the fine print on the contracts, or they are being presented in such a way as "well, this is MY commission . . . and this is the fee that has to be paid to my office", said in such an off-hand way that it seems accepted.
I remember working in the mortgage industry in the 80's, when "underwriting fees" started getting tacked on. I was adamantly against them, but the way they were finally introduced, the executives in the division's bonuses were based partly on how much additional fee income they could pull in.
This. That's why I read every word of every contract I sign. Many times businesses insert hidden fees and the majority of people just sign without reading what they're signing, giving away hard earned extra money they don't have to give away. In another fee incident I experienced, I was looking for a new Primary Care Physician. The office was a nice office, and the doctor was a nice doctor.
When I was about to initial all the little boxes listing the requirements as a new patient, I came across an unfamiliar clause. The paragraph said that if I was more than 10 minutes late to my appointment, the doctor's office would charge me $25 for imposing on their time. I refused to sign this box. I went to the front and said, "I will only sign this if the DOCTOR agrees to pay ME $25 if he is more than 10 minutes late for my appointment as well." The receptionist was baffled. She had never heard anyone protest this fee before. I spoke to the office manager, and got out of that fee as well. I never run late except in dire circumstances, but that sort of hypocrisy (especially since doctors are notorious for making patients wait a long time for them) is not OK with me.
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