DUMB QUESTION

How, when and by whom does the realtor get paid.
In both selling and buying a home (meaning there are two different ones)

Re: DUMB QUESTION

I'm pretty sure the buyer pays the realtor cost (usually around 3-6%) - and it gets paid at closing in one of the MANY checks that pass across the table.

ETA - now that I'm thinking about it - I think I'm wrong about the buyer paying. Anyone else?

Message edited 7/27/2005 8:59:48 AM.

Re: DUMB QUESTION

the seller pays the commission, not the buyer. the realtor gets paid at closing.

eta: and it's not a dumb question.

Message edited 7/27/2005 9:06:41 AM.

Re: DUMB QUESTION

The seller pays the commission. If there are 2 agents (one for the buyer and one for the seller), they have to split it...but as the buyer, you don't pay anything. I worked with a buyer's agent when I bought my condo...and he got his commission from the seller also...it was just a smaller % than a regular agent.

Also....I don't know about NY, but in NJ, agent commission is negotiable. When I sold that condo...I didn't want to pay the 6% commission to the agent....so we worked on a sliding scale. If we got between X and X he got 4%, between Y and Y then 5%, and between Z and Z then 6%. If he got above that...I was willing to give him 7%, since I knew that would never happen. I wound up paying 5% in the end.

It comes out of the checks at the closing...so if you are walking away with a profit...the check will be less the commission fee that is paid out.

Re: DUMB QUESTION

Posted by MrsERod

the seller pays the commission, not the buyer. the realtor gets paid at closing.

eta: and it's not a dumb question.

Re: DUMB QUESTION

Seller always pays the agent, and it comes out of the closing costs, though mind you, it's all semantics because the higher the commission, the higher the cost of the house, so in the end, it's really the buyer who is paying. BEWARE though - when DH and I started looking at houses, we looked on realtor.com and called a realtor regarding one particular house we liked. She told us we would have to come in and meet with her - we did, and of course the house was already sold, but she wasted an hour of our time giving us a presentation on why we should sign a contract to only deal with HER, and hidden in the contract was a clause stating that if, for any reason, the seller couldn't pay the agent's commission, we were on the hook for it. We got up and walked out on her... some of these realtors can be VERY sneaky

Re: DUMB QUESTION

Posted by Bxgell2

- when DH and I started looking at houses, we looked on realtor.com and called a realtor regarding one particular house we liked. She told us we would have to come in and meet with her - we did, and of course the house was already sold, but she wasted an hour of our time giving us a presentation on why we should sign a contract to only deal with HER, and hidden in the contract was a clause stating that if, for any reason, the seller couldn't pay the agent's commission, we were on the hook for it. We got up and walked out on her... some of these realtors can be VERY sneaky

Message edited 7/27/2005 9:17:22 AM.