How much did you pay your realtor

rwhite0714 · November 2014

For those who have bought a house using a realtor. How much did you have to pay them? Has anyone bought a house without using a realtor?

JaydenUSR · November 2014

Real estate agents have commission. So,for their commission, it's typically 6% of the sales price.

In many cases the commission is evenly split between the buyers’ agent and the listing agent, but sometimes the split is negotiated unevenly. For example, a seller could agree to pay a 5.5% commission divided so that the listing agent receives 3% and the buyers’ agent receives 2.5% of the listing.

Sisugal · November 2014

As a buyer - I laid nothing for my realtor. This is a seller's obligation.
I paid for my own closing costs .

Xstatic3333 · November 2014

Sisugal said:
As a buyer - I laid nothing for my realtor. This is a seller's obligation.
I paid for my own closing costs .

This.

ETA I can't imagine navigating the process without my realtor! It's more complicated than I had expected.

OtterJ · December 2014

When our real estate agent submitted our first offer, he also had us sign an agreement with him. It basically said that he would be paid 3% of the selling price - either the seller would pay it, OR we would pay it.

NORMALLY this is paid by the seller. Generally the seller pays 6%, and it is divided between the listing agent, and the buyer's agent. Rules may vary by state, but it would have been possible for our seller to omit payment to our agent (or as listed above, the seller could have cut our agent's commission). If that had been the case, we would be on the hook for paying the 3% (or the remainder of). I'm not sure of all of the details of when/how a seller gets out of paying commission, I just know it is possible.

Our seller paid the full 3% (which is normal), so we paid our agent nothing.

Also - I highly recommend using a realtor. Even if we did have to foot his bill, it would have been worth it. He went to bat for us when negotiating, arranged all of the inspections, helped us work out problems with our lender, and answered our incessant questions.

JoanE2012 · December 2014

We paid our realtor nothing. In fact, she bought us a bottle of wine at closing!

scotter77 · December 2014

Remember though to try and negotiate a commission rebate from your Realtor, so that they in fact are offering an incentive for them to represent you.

bobcats67 · December 2014

Kind of going along with this topic, do home buyers typically get their realtor a thank-you gift? Ours was great, though we came to him with our sights set specifically on the house we ended up buying so he didn't have to find houses/show us around, and it was a very easy closing process from the moment we put in our offer, and I know he was compensated well by the seller. He was so helpful when it came to negotiations and answering my (many) questions, though. Not sure if we should send him something to thank him?

Xstatic3333 · December 2014

bobcats67 said:
Kind of going along with this topic, do home buyers typically get their realtor a thank-you gift? Ours was great, though we came to him with our sights set specifically on the house we ended up buying so he didn't have to find houses/show us around, and it was a very easy closing process from the moment we put in our offer, and I know he was compensated well by the seller. He was so helpful when it came to negotiations and answering my (many) questions, though. Not sure if we should send him something to thank him?

I did not, but wrote him a glowing Zillow review.

jtmh2012 · December 2014

bobcats67 said:

Kind of going along with this topic, do home buyers typically get their realtor a thank-you gift? Ours was great, though we came to him with our sights set specifically on the house we ended up buying so he didn't have to find houses/show us around, and it was a very easy closing process from the moment we put in our offer, and I know he was compensated well by the seller. He was so helpful when it came to negotiations and answering my (many) questions, though. Not sure if we should send him something to thank him?

I figure our realtor got several thousand dollars out of the deal from us. Didn't see the need to give her a gift.

bobcats67 · December 2014

Makes sense. I like the idea of writing him a good review too. Thanks

Sisugal · December 2014

The best gift you can give your buyer's realtor is a good review and referrals.

licensedRealtor · December 2014

scotter77 said:

Remember though to try and negotiate a commission rebate from your Realtor, so that they in fact are offering an incentive for them to represent you.

No, no, no. Really? I can tell you how hard I would work for you if this were the case. That 6% that was mentioned above? That's a good average for my area. 3% goes to the seller representative, 3% to the buyer. But- there is a brokerage split. I pay right around 50% to my broker. Most brokers receive 30-50%, and generally you have to be in the business for a while to get that 70% of the 3%.

In other words, if you're buying a house that is $100k, I would make $1500. When you add in my costs just to be a Realtor (dues of over $1000 a year, marketing materials, gas, etc.), it's insulting to ask me to give you money to work for you. The Realtor that takes that is either going to be new or desperate. Terrible, insulting idea.

How much did you pay your realtor

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