Episode 8
Hey, everybody, I’m Scott DiGregorio, your Mortgage Guy. This time, I want to talk to you about real estate commissions when you’re a buyer. If you’re thinking about buying a house, and you have down payment and closing costs and prepaid and now you have to pay real estate commissions, right? Well actually, you don’t.
The deal with real estate commissions is that in most cases, the overwhelming majority– I don’t want to say 100% because there’s always an exception, but the overwhelming majority of cases; you do not pay the real estate commission.
The way it typically works is the seller will pay a full commission to the listing agent. And then as a buyer’s agent comes in, the listing agent splits that commission with them. Now, some real estate companies and agents will charge a small little transaction fee of a few hundred dollars per transaction. And as a buyer, you may have to pay for that. However, that’s a relatively small thing and frankly, that’s oftentimes negotiable. You don’t have to pay this big real estate commission.
Another thing that’s important to talk about in terms of agents is, ‘should you have a buyer’s agent?’ and the answer is: yes! There’s a mindset out there that, “Hey if I go right to the listing agent, there may be some more negotiation room.” and that may be true, there may be some negotiation room. There probably won’t be a whole lot, but there may still be some room for it. But here’s the problem, if the deal starts to go sideways, and the appraisal comes in low or home inspection has things on it; whatever it is. And you then have to negotiate, it’ll make more sense for you to have somebody in your corner that is ideally trained as a negotiator. A third party that isn’t emotional, that can fight on your behalf. When you have one agent in the middle, someone who is representing both sides, that situation turns out to be more of a conflict of interest.
Now, there are some agents that do that very well. However, the big picture, I think it’s better to have an agent that represents you solely and your interests. Especially considering you don’t have to pay for it. I’ve mentioned this in a lot of videos, there’s a big spread on the quality of agents. So, if you’re looking for a good real estate agent: please reach out to me at (239)910-6040.
I have a network of agents all over the state of Florida, and I can point you in the right direction to make sure that you have a true professional with negotiating skills, and deep market knowledge representing you and fighting for your interests.
I hope I’ve helped clear that up! My name is Scott DiGregorio, I’m your Mortgage Guy. Reach out to me if I can help, take care.
