While perusing the internet and other blogs, I saw a lot of questions about agent kickbacks and incentives. Briefly, an agent incentive might be something like, “if you can close this deal in X number of days, selling agent shall receive a $5,000 bonus on top of their commission.” While these incentives are somewhat rare, they do happen. The question I am seeing in cyber space, is do buyer’s agents have to disclose this to their clients? The answer simply put is no. The seller sets the commission the buyer’s agent is to get paid. What the seller is willing to pay the buyers agent is up to them. It does not affect what the buyer is paying for the property (the commission costs have already been included in the sales price). A good and honest buyer’s agent is most likely willing to give their client something in return. A nicer gift or a credit towards their closing costs.
A person selling real estate (not the buyer) usually determines how much the agent makes. Sometimes as buyers agents we really don’t make that much. In other cases our pay off is good. The real question out there is do agent incentives actually help the property sell faster? To be honest I do not think so. If a property is priced correctly and marketed well, it will sell. Agent incentives certainly make us agents very happy but the reality is buyers are only going to buy a place if it is a perfect fit for them.
Erin Goodwin
www.SusandErin.com
