Just to clarify some of the answers here, you may be able to list for $399, etc., but you will also have to pay 3% to the buyer's agent. If you don't, no one will show your house. OldTrader
1. Sold 2 properties w/n last 3 mo. commish was 2.5/2.5 on both; have another now listed 1/3. In the 2 props that were sold, listing agent was not the selling agent. 2. Fl 3. Yes
In Calif., lowest I've paid was 4% (3% to buyers agent, 1% to listing agent). 6% (which many people often pay) is a complete ripoff. Don't buy the listing agent bs that they "market" the property this way & that. Any property they spend $ marketing is usually for their own publicity effort in the hope of attracting more listings. In many other countries (even where US based franchises like ReMax or BetterHomes, etc. operate) sellers often pay a fixed 3% fee to sell a property. Again, 6% is a scam!
ZERO I bought and sold my first two homes without the assistance of a real estate agent. I can assure you I had no idea what I was doing, expect for he fact I saved a ton of money. It's hard for me to imagine much of anyone needing to piss away 6% of a deal to have someone hold your hand whilst you do exactly what you were going to do anyway, without the hand holding. But that's just me.
Zero on the last two. Agents are far too overpriced due to the casino like mentality created by all that money available at closing.
If you are selling a 10 million dollar property, you usually pay less than 2%. For a 50 million dollar + property, maybe not even 1% When you buy a brand new home, if you dont have a buyers agent, then the home builder usually just pays their employee which can be as low as .5% or even lower as they might just pay an hourly wage. Although I've seen some tract housing where the builder pays as much as 1.5% commission to the selling agent, plus 3% to the buyers agent. I know 1.5% doesnt sound like much, but when you are doing tract housing, you are doing high volume and sometimes as many as 20 or 30 homes per month...especially during the boom. When I bought my house in late 2008, they were selling at a rate of about 8-10 per month. Each house being 200k at 1.5% commission would be 24-30k per month.
You went commando on your first home? That's scary. How did you know you weren't buying from some guy who was just housesitting for a couple weeks? Did you remember to get title insurance / do title search, file the deed with the county, and all the other stuff? If you had no idea what you are doing, how did you know you weren't leaving out some important step? If you financed, I'm surprised the lender would OK the mortgage without a RE agent attached to the deal. If you paid cash, it's foolish to sling around a couple hundred thousand dollars without someone who is licensed, bonded, insured, regulated and affiliated just in case something goes sideways. Glad it worked out for you, but jeez..
LOL---I assume you've never bought or sold a house. Don't be scared. Don't believe the lies. Don't play the game.
No offence but this is a really bad way to maximise your sale price. Sale price correlates to the number of qualified buyers who view the place, and your knowledge (or agent's knowledge) of just how high buyers are able and willing to pay. The difference between a good agent and a bad agent is at least 10% on the sale price. So try to imagine the difference between a DIY homeseller and a good agent. Using MLS yourself is a false economy IMO.