You Can Earn a Real Estate Commission Rebate on Your Next Home Purchase
Buyers brokers have recently begun offering real estate commission rebates to prospective clients as an incentive to get them to enter a weak real estate market. Surprisingly, the idea is catching on in some of the states where the practice is allowed.
Up until now, real estate commissions were calculated at five to six percent, based on the sale price of a home, and divided between the brokers on both sides of the transaction. The seller is responsible for paying the entire real estate commission; the buyer pays nothing. Lately, though, buyer brokers have been giving a portion of their share of the commission to their clients in the form of a real estate commission rebate.
The growth in online real estate listings has spurred the invention of nontraditional ways of doing business in the real estate industry. Brokers are doing less work for their real estate commissions as more people rely on the power of the Internet to buy and sell homes. In response, some Multiple Listing Service agencies have begun to offer flat fee real estate listing services to sellers, in which they act primarily as contact points for sellers and their prospective buyers. Now buyers are finding that, in actuality, they are doing part of the brokers work by finding their future homes online and believe they have earned a real estate commission rebate.
As is the case with flat fee services, there are some brokers who are reluctant to work with buyers without agents to show the homes. However, others will argue that, in a real estate slump, properties should be made available to all prospective home buyers regardless of the sales method. Buyers and sellers alike are more Internet savvy now and more frequently require brokers only for negotiations, contract preparation and other real estate related intricacies of the deal. Why should buyers not receive a real estate commission rebate for their part in the transaction.
Why should the rules of the real estate business remain the same when the playing field has changed so dramatically. With the advent of Internet real estate shopping, no one is going to want to pay a broker a high real estate commission when home prices rise, as they inevitably will again at some point in the future. Brokers will always play a necessary role in real estate transactions but, as times change, the nature of their role will change along with it.