If you are a home seller you can negotiate your commissions with your agent in such a way that you pay lower commissions and still get quality service, and more buyer offers.  In this example let’s say you negotiate commissions from the standard 6% down to 5%. Your home is worth $300,000 so you have just saved yourself $3000 (see our Sellers’ Savings Calculator).    You can also further negotiate the 5% commission split so it benefits you the most.

The graph below shows you how commissions are traditionally split between the buyer’s agent and the seller’s agent.  We have given an example of a 5% commission on a $300,000 home, split equally at 2.5% between the buyers and sellers agent.  Keep in mind commissions are negotiable and it is a sellers market so you are in the driver’s seat.

What you can do is instruct the listing agent (also called the sellers agent) that part of your terms before you list your home is that the selling agent must agree he or she will receive 2% and that the buyer’s agent gets 3%.  Now the agent may give you a number of blah, blah blahs about why his or her services are valuable, and why he or she deserves to be paid equally.  Stick to your guns:  The truth is that getting listings are the life blood of the real estate agent, and remember you are calling the shots.  You can always take your listing to another agent that will respect your terms.  Believe me there are plenty of agents that are eager for your business.  This is one of the reasons I developed BargainAgents.com. It puts you in the driver’s seat and lets you Set Your Own Terms.

If the total commission split was 4.5% then you would want the listing agent to get 2% and the buyers agent to get 2.5%.  If the commissions are 4% you would offer the listing agent 1.5% and the buyers agent 2.5%.  You get the idea:  Basically you want the buyers agent to get slightly more.

SUMMARY:  What we have done in the example above is give the buyer’s agent more of an incentive to show your home to his or her buyers.  This will allow you to get more offers on your home.  Many sellers know that they can negotiate lower commissions, but what is not common knowledge is you can also negotiate the commission split so it benefits you the most.

If you are a home buyer or seller you can save thousands in fees by visiting my site www.BargainAgents.com

By Tony Dosanjh
CEO/Founder
www.BargainAgents.com