The List - Details

In order to be included on our LIST, at the very least, buyer brokers will need to discount the fee that they would normally receive from the seller by the typical 25% they would pay out for a referral. Those who advertise a higher discount will be allowed to publish that information on our web site. In addition, brokers must be willing to set a fixed fee or commission upfront and be willing to reduce that fee even more if the seller offers less than the negotiated amount. Any overages being offered by the seller or the seller's broker must be passed on to the buyer in the form of a rebate or price reduction of the house.

One of the things we're trying to eliminate are the secret bonuses that sellers or their brokers often offer to buyer brokers. We believe that when a seller broker pays a bonus to the buyer broker that completely miss-aligns the financial interests of the buyer broker and creates an insurmountable financial conflict of interest.

No administrative fees or other junk fees allowed either. And we reserve the right to exclude agents from our list. Commissions are supposed to be negotiable (it is the law), but buyers rarely are given an opportunity to negotiate those commissions. If buyers ask, they are often told not to worry about it, "the seller will pay for it." The buyer broker's commission is possibly the most important fee to be negotiated in the transaction. It is extremely detrimental to buyers to allow the seller to determine how much the buyer broker gets paid. And agents who keep their buyers in the dark about their fees are not just acting badly, they're acting illegally.

WARNING 1:  - CAARE is not recommending agents who appear on our LIST.  We are only passing on information on fees that we receive from agents.  We have no knowledge of their experience, integrity or even if they are licensed.  Consumers must do their own research to determine if the agent or brokerage they hire is competent. 

WARNING 2:  Always share information about this rebate with your loan officer early in the transaction or it could interfere with your closing.  Loans will often have to be reduced by the same amount as the rebate so as not to affect the loan to value ratios.

LEGAL NOTE:  In most states it is legal for a buyer broker to pay  part or all of the commission they collect from the seller's broker to the buyer.  So if a buyer were to negotiate a commission that was 50% of the amount being offered by the seller's broker, that would result in a 50% "rebate" being paid to the buyer.   On a $250,000 house, that would typically mean that instead of the buyer broker collecting $7,500 (for typically 40 hours of work), the seller would pay your broker $3,750 and pay you the same amount.  If you want to calculate how much you would save, try out this rebate calculator at the Department of Justice's website.