Rain City Guide

Once on a Blue Moon, I need to insist that a buyer, if I am going to work with them, sign a buyer agency agreement.
1) When assisting them in their home search requires that I go inside every property to ascertain if the property has what they need.
Example: must have first floor bedroom that [...]

Tim’s Comment: “What many do not realize is the extent and frequency in which commissions are reduced via credits to the parties at closing. It is very common.’While Tim raised this subject as if these credits were commission negotiations, and sometimes they are, more often these credits are how agents help the buyer and seller [...]

Sellsius has the right point, but the wrong Godfather.
The Godfather of the people outside of “The Family” is the local State Real Estate Commission, appointed in most cases by the Governor of each state, and the protections for the people are in the licensing laws of each state.
The Godfather of the Realtors, the people inside [...]

So many recent articles and posts have focused on these “new” real estate practices and how they are all reducing commissions, going to drive the stodgy old guard out of business and revolutionize the industry. I’ve also both read and listened to a lot of “traditional” real estate agents complain about discounters and how they [...]

Editor’s Note: I’m excited to introduce Seattle Eric as a new contributor on RCG. It must be six months ago that I first approached Eric to see if he would be interesting in coming on as a contributor because I really liked the writing style he demonstrated on his blog about life as a [...]

And some ask why the government is so fixated on organized real estate. It is because of this mindset and the audacity to shout it out to the world…
I tactfully tell my sellers if I reduce my commission to 4 percent or 5 percent, the buyer’s agents will show my listings last only [...]

My very first entry here on RCG discussed the manner in which a buyer and their buyer’s agent negotiate the buyer agent commission. Being a “Discount Broker” and Negotiating are not one in the same. A “Discount Broker” usually has a set fee or menu of services with set prices. Many traditional brokers have a [...]

I was quite encouraged by a phone call I received yesterday from an agent wanting to discuss how to approach fee negotiations with a buyer. Not how to object to the subject. Not how to respond if a buyer raises the topic. But how to introduce the concept of negotiating the fee to a buyer, [...]

For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that in normal market conditions, the division of the total commission agreed to by the seller in the listing contract is divided evenly between the agent for the seller and the agent for the buyer. In the diagram, the blue portion represents the listing agent’s compensation [...]