Jul 10

A Common Question About Commissions

POSTED BY Colin Spann:

Buy or Sell a Home with Charleston's #1 Team

Who pays the commission to the real estate agent?

I’m asked this question a few times a month, and I believe it’s an important one that I should answer. 99% of the time if you’re looking at a typical real estate transaction the seller pays all of the commission to the agent and the buyer pays no real estate commission.

So, in the majority of cases, the seller hires a listing agent for a total commission amount. The listing agent then takes half of that commission amount and offers it in the MLS to the buyer’s agents to lure them to their listings and bring them offers. If there is no buyer’s agent, then the listing agent will keep the full commission for themselves.

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The seller hires a listing agent for a total commission amount.

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If you’re a buyer and you know that you want to buy a house for $500,000 or more and you want to contact that listing agent directly, think of it this way. You have the opportunity to get a buyer’s agent that is a free representative to you and will look out for you by being your advocate through the whole process.

We have many clients who would rather call these different listing agents themselves instead of working with one person who would really have their back, and once we explain to them the benefits of having a buyer’s agent work for them, they are then convinced that it’s a better way to go.

If you have any other questions or you’re looking to buy or sell a home in our area, give me a call. We’d be happy to help!

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