Seller pays commission at time of closing
You have spent months searching for the perfect property online. You are now ready to pursue said properties. Reaching out to a REALTOR® is most likely your next stop. You either know someone already, someone referred you or you just simply chose a REALTOR® purely by random. If you haven't gone about it this way, it may have something to do with a question about how do REALTORS® actually get paid? Did you know the truth to this question is the Seller pays commission at time of closing!
The reason to question this is very simple and basic... You the buyer has hired someone to do a job for you. If you hire an electrician to wire your house, you will pay him directly and at time of services rendered. The real estate profession is very different. Your REALTOR® might work tireless hours WORKING for you and they don't get paid until everyone sits down at a table and have a closing. Its at that point the seller will pay the commission represented only on paper. The seller nor the buyer will ever give any money to any real estate agent. Only the Title Company shall handle all distributions of commission to the listing and selling brokerages.
Typically at time of listing the real estate property, the listing brokerage and the seller will agree to a commission percentage or a flat fee to sell. They will most likely agree upon a portion of that commission to be allocated to a potential selling brokerage as well. This is where a buyers agent gets paid.
There is of cause one little caveat to this perfect scenario. If you the buyer decides to pursue a For Sale By Owner, or as we like to call them FSBO, this particular seller has the option to pay commission. If they decide to pay your buyers agent a commission, the agent will get a signed document to represent the agreed upon percentage or amount from the seller. However; if they choose not to pay, the buyer will be in a situation to pay his/her buyers agents commission. For this reason, agents prefer to sell homes listed in the MLS so we do not have to ask a buyer to pay our commission.
We would like to earn your business in the very best way we can, let us be your buyers agent and if you buy something from the MLS we will never ask for a dime! When was the last time you could say you bought a really expensive product and didn't have to pay the person who handled all the legal documents for free? Let that be us, and lets start earning your business today. We look forward to working for you for free.