Consumer tips and tools for sellers.
How to Negotiate a Real Estate Commission.
Negotiate Both Parts of the Commission.
Offer Fee Directly to Buyer. Require your broker to share their commission with buyer brokers AND unrepresented buyers. This is legal in all but 10 states and a practice that is encouraged by the United States Department of Justice (click here for a link).
Consumer Friendly Listing Contract. Use this as a guide to negotiating your own contract or directly with your Realtor. However, some states may have certain required disclosures and terms and in that case consider using this as an addendum to the contract that your Realtor provides to you.
Consumer Friendly Listing Clauses. Consider adding some of these clauses to the listing contract that your Realtor provides to you.
Open Houses Do NOT Sell Houses. Read this article before you decide to allow your Realtor to hold open houses. Open houses are for helping Realtors find buyer clients, they do not sell houses.
Pocket Listings. Do not EVER agree to this practice because it maximizes the broker’s commissions (often doubles them) while severely impacting seller’s ability to sell house at best price and terms.
LIST of Top Ten Worst Practices. Be aware of these bad practices.
Save $300. This simple negotiating tactic should save you $300 or more.
Articles
Survey – Real estate attorneys – See what attorneys think about dual agency and controlled business arrangements (“one stop shopping”).
Open Houses Do NOT Sell Houses. Read this article before you decide to allow your Realtor to hold open houses. Open houses are for helping Realtors find buyer clients, they do not sell houses.
Avoid Dual Agency. Consumers top two reasons for hiring Realtors is to help negotiate price and terms. Realtors are prohibited from doing both in a dual agency.
Designated Agency. Is it Fraud?
“One Stop Shopping” Do not ever use services that are affiliated with your Realtor, brokerage or builder firm. The service industries designed to provide safeguards to ensure healthy residential real estate transactions are now actually owned and run by the firms which have huge stakes in the transaction such as builders, Realtors, and lenders.