Is there a fee for using a realtor when purchasing a home?

Question

My fiance thinks no, and that the fee is paid by the seller. It seems to me that the seller would tack on the fee to the selling price so ultimately it is still the buyer that pays it in the end. This seems to be a trick of words to say the seller pays since they are using the buyers money. Am I correct that the seller does tack on the 2-5% commission to their asking price, or is there any reason why they would or could not do that?

Answer 1

Yes, realtors charge a fee for their services:
1. Advertising
2. Showing
3. Contract negotiation/paperwork.

Yes, this fee normally gets tacked onto the selling price.
Since most Real Estate transaction, however, are initiated and mediated by a Realtor, the 'going price' of a property usually already includes that fee. You can find 'the going price' by doing a Comparative evaluation:
Find the clerk of records in your city (website) and do a search for neighboring properties that sold within the past 6 months. Then compare features to the home you're looking to buy (# of bedrooms, baths, garage, pool yes/no, etc.)
You'll get an idea of how much these houses sold for.
Realtors use the 'Comp' method when suggesting a selling price for the house to the seller.
You can also find "For Sale By Owner" properties where a Realtor is not involved. If you do such a transaction, however, you are not protected by the laws that govern the ethics for realtors.
You should educate yourself thoroughly before doing a Real Estate transaction without a realtor.

Answer 2

There should be a fee for asking a question that has been answered already here about 100 times per week. Why don't you try this next time you have such an ignorant inquiry, look it up in answers first. There you will find thousands of the same answer for this question. There is a hidden fee as buyers agent is paid by seller and is part of the price. That is just part of a selling cost that's passed onto the buyer. Agents will argue this fact all day long. Market price when performing a CMA does not consider brokerage fees so agents will insist that it is not paid by the buyer or factored into the price. The real cost of using a buyers agent isn't measured in commission. It is either the savings you received by getting a great deal and a smooth closing. Or the overage you had to pay because you had a horrible agent. Or the ensuing nightmare of closing a deal with a inefficient agent. Those costs can be beyond tangible measure.

Answer 3

It is usually the seller who pays the commission on a home. A sale generally works like this:

The seller decides to sell his home. The home cannot sell for more than what other houses like it are selling for in the area (why would someone pay $2000-$50,000 more for a house that is no different than a cheaper one down the street?) so he can't just tack on the commission on top of the sales price (though a lot of sellers would like to do that!) This fee is only paid once the home is sold - so while the seller is the one paying it, yes, it is the buyer's money for the house.

The seller usually will offer a commission between 5-7% on the property. The seller's agent gets half of the commission (2.5-3.5%) and the other half of the commission goes to the buyer's agent. Therefore, your agent representing you would get paid by the seller. Most states have now adopted some sort of "Consumer Notice" that explains how real estate agency works.

Most brokers however DO charge some sort of "Administrative Fee" or "Regulation Compliance Fee" to all clients (Name may vary but will be in a buyer agency agreement or listing contract with the agent/broker so you are aware of it upfront) Some companies charge as little as $175 like mine, others charge $395 and up!

I know it seems confusing - If I can be of help to you finding an agent to work with in your area let me know! It is definately a lot easier to understand if someone explains it to you in person.

Answer 4

There is a fee charged to the seller. Now the seller can not add this charge to the sales price, I can not for the life of me figure out how people are saying this.

The sales price is determined by the appraiser when it is taken. Once he appraisal has been done this establish the sales price.
Once this price has been established the seller can not then come back and say since I have a real estate agent selling my house and his/her commission I now want to raise the sells price to cover this commission so I am gonna add another $24,000.

The lender will not lend over the sales price of a house except under certain condition and they are all buyer requested.

Now if you are the buyer and have not signed up with a buyer's agent then you are under no obligation to pay any real estate commission. Now some real estate agents might tell you that since they work directly for you they are charging a certain fee Place any name on that fee you want and the fee is $500 or $1000.

You should not sign an agreement such as this because the buyer's agent will share the commission what ever it is with the listing or selling agent. So you need not pay any additional fees. If they attempt to get any just walk away and wait for the next bus to come along.

You can word your contract the way you want, if you want the seller to pay all closing cost add it to your contract. They will probably make a counter offer. Again if a real estate agent to include the seller's agent balk at anything you want to put into your contract you want offer to the seller, find another agent.

I hope this has been of some use to you, good luck.

"FIGHT ON"

Answer 5

Actually, you and your fiance are both right. The seller pays the commission to the realtor which is figured into the selling price. However, bear in mind that once you turn over the money to the seller, it now belongs to the seller and not you. You are playing semantics in trying to prove your fiance wrong.

The amount of commission depends on the agency, the area you live in, etc. The only reason I can think of that there would be no commission is if they are selling a close family member's house or their own. And, again, this would depend on the agency--some might not allow any type of non-commission dealings at all by their reps. Just the same way some corporations do not allow any type of moonlighting whatsoever by their employees.

If you don't want to pay the commission, why not just buy a "sold by owner" house only?

Answer 6

The payment to the realtors does come from the seller. I think that most of the time the money comes from the proceeds of the sale. People who sell their house without a realtor may know that fewer prospective buyers will see the house, and therefore ask for a lower price off the top. On the other hand, sellers almost always ask for more than they think they will get to allow some room for negotiation.

Answer 7

I don't know where you live and what the commission reg's are there, but here in Maine, having a buyer broker is the best thing you can do. You can call several agency's there to ask if the seller pays commission like they all do here. Get one that gets paid by seller but has a contract to act in YOUR best interest, How can you beat someone licensed to represent you in a sale and it costs you nothing??? They can help protect against the builders doing anything NOT in your best interest, Little known fact about builders everywhere,,,MOST of them have law suits pending, alot of them have many,,not public knowledge however....but very scary if i were a buyer. The realtor may know alot about this builder. They will also act in your defense if anything happens to the property after the sale in most cases..The prices don't change with a realtor most of the time, sellers know they are needed and buyers wont purchase without one if they are smart!

Answer 8

I know my real estate agent when I bought my house received a 1% commission. I'm not sure exactly how much commission the real estate agency as a whole got. But you can figure that cost is added into your price somehow. But it's not like that fee is tacked on afterwards to the price of the house you agree on. So say you agreed on $100K for your house, you wouldn't have to pay $103K if their was a 3% commission. That 3% commission is included on the $100K price of the house, so you'd only have to pay on a principal of $100K. And I'm sure commission prices vary from area to area and real estate agency to real estate agency.

In a matter of speaking, you are both right. The seller does pay that commission. So when they sell the house for say $100K, the seller would only get about $97K. And the real estate agency would get about $3K for selling the house.

Answer 9

The seller only pays the commission if that is agreed upon at closing. The realtor expects the buyer to pay commission because the seller's realtor also makes commission.

Answer 10

if someone is selling there home they pay the realtor fee's however the new buyer is actually paying that fee since the seller is going to be asking more for their home. So your right you will ultimately end up paying for the realtors fee.