The Fly on the Wall- Negotiate Commission
Welcome to The Fly On The Wall- An informative blog designed to help buyers and sellers in the real estate transaction process. Today’s tip: Negotiate commission to cut your costs and sell your property faster!
Chances are good that if you’re working with a real estate agent their commission fees are negotiable. That’s right, they’re not written in stone and just because it says 6% in your real estate contract doesn’t mean its law or that you should be polite and accept it. Fee based percentages of the transaction are regularly negotiated as properties are listed or sold. The more motivated real estate agents and firms will work to get your business and provide the kind of personal service that the internet cannot offer.
At Tomacor, many of our smartest buyers inspect property before they go under contract. Under these terms and conditions, buyers come in with no contingency deals, no nit picking the seller over minor deficiencies that are blown out of proportion, and with less money given the real estate agents in the transaction. The smarter real estate companies such as Redfin, Trulia, Roost, and Zillow are emerging into the market place threatening more established real estate firms with cheaper fee structures and more access to critical components you want to asses in your purchase decision. Our founder, Tom Corbett, has seen commission fees negotiated during the inspection process on many inspections. After all, 1% of 1 million dollars is better than 6% of nothing. Don’t be bashful.
In some cases, major reductions in fees are available if you negotiate with the same agent to sell your home and help you buy another one, or if you are in a uniquely desirable neighborhood that will bring a lot of traffic, the broker will be able to use the house to help represent the high quality image they are selling to potential buyers or sellers of real property.
At a modest home sale of $350,000 a drop in fee from 3% to 2% nets you a savings of over $3,500.
Don’t pay attention to what insiders are telling you about the market rebounding in February or March of this year. Of course the market rebounds every year in early spring because that’s the nature of the market. The overriding understanding to stay focused on is that the market is adjusting and it is adjusting down. We are in a real estate recession and we are in the lowest sales portion of the yearly cycle, winter and early spring. Don’t be bashful.