How to Pay Less Real Estate Commission Sonoma CA
The internet has changed the way sellers can show their homes. According to the U.S. National Association of Realtors, 75% of buyers use the internet to search for homes. See how you can negotiate a lower commission to sell your home.
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How to Pay Less Real Estate Commission
Steps
- Understand that real estate commissions are always negotiable.
- Be alert. If your home is only listed in the Multiple Listing Service of your area, it may not be receiving the best market exposure. All other means of exposure such as open houses and newspaper advertising are used to supplement MLS marketing. Your realtor should use all the mean available to expose your house to the market.
- Be wary of the "discount brokers" as they offer different tiers to market your home. Depending on the sales price, you may end up paying more than the local commission rates.
- Always negotiate. You can negotiate with local agents to pay a lower commission. Try and remember, "you get what you pay for". Companies set their own policies regarding their commission rates, but it's illegal for an agent to tell you all commissions are pre-set by a governmental agency. Actually, it's an anti-trust violation.
- Search online for an agent. If you have trouble finding an agent from a large, well-established and well-known franchise company to negotiate their commission, then search online for a discount broker in your area. They specialize in selling "Discount Homes".
- You should interview a couple agents. Find one that you would like to spend time with and one that has a marketing plan.
- Generally it doesn't cost any more to use a reputable Real Estate agent from a Well known company.
Warnings
- Ads and open houses only comprise 3-4% of the marketing pie. Is that worth thousands of dollars of your home equity? Remember, buyers look at homes online; with the internet, they have information previously unavailable to consumers right at their fingertips.
- Most buyers don't like to negoiate with the sellers directly so you should plan on hiring a realtor.
- Most buyers hire buyers agents that expect 3% from the sale of the house. Not all the fees go to the listing agent, they normally split it equally with the buyer's agent.
- If your house is not listed with an agent / broker, you are probably not getting the amount of exposure that you will need to get the best price.
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