What Does working with the "RIGHT" Realtor Cost?

Why is it any different in real estate? One of the questions I'm sure you have on your mind is, what's the cost to make the RIGHT decision?   I’m going to walk you through the breakdown of the costs involved when hiring me to represent you on your purchase of a new home or sale of your existing home.  

This way everything is on the table up front!

How much does it cost to hire you to help me buy a house?

The good news is , there is NO cost and here’s how it works.  

Over 85% of home buyers are represented by a Real Estate agent.  When you are selling a property listing it on the Multiple listing service puts it on the market for real estate agents to bring their clients. 

A seller or their listing agent will offer a commission to a buyer's agent who procures a buyer for their property, which is how a buyer's agent get compensated.  

So as a buyer there is no out of pocket expense to working with us or any agent unless the buyer’s agents charges you. 

Our only job to make sure you make the RIGHT decision for you.  So we aren't working for FREE, but it’s not coming out of your pocket. Our role is to help you find the right property and then facilitate it to closing.

How Much Does It Cost To Hire You To Sell My House?

Now if you are selling a property and decide to hire me to represent you there will be a commission charged. Let me break down exactly how that works.

Based upon which type of plan you choose (we offer different plans) the total commission amount will be charge of anywhere between 5-6% of the sales price.  Here’s a breakdown how that works:

Half of that commission is being offered to the buyer’s agent.  

For reasons stated earlier, it is in your interest as a seller to offer a compensation to a buyer’s agent and list it on the Multiple Listing Service, since you will reach a much larger pool of buyers.

***If the event there is no buyer’s agent involved in the sale of your house, then the total commission is dropped to 3.5% at closing.

The other half of the commission pays for marketing costs and facilitation of your home sale.  

Here’s how it works.

All marketing expenses are fronted out of our side. If your home DOES NOT sell, we lose all that money and time spent, so we have skin in the game with you.  

If you want top dollar we have to do a lot more than put a sign in the yard and list it on the MLS.  You need to market it, and that all costs money…

The first thing we need to properly prepare the house for sale. Sometimes this can mean rearranging furniture to making small improvements to areas of the property.  

For example, if we can paint a few rooms for $500 and were to receive $2,500 in return of sales price that would make sense.

It’s my job to make it ready to sell for you.

Once that is done then it's time to prepare the marketing like get professional photography, video, brochures, signages.

It’s very important we create a lot of buzz within the first two weeks we hit the market.  Once the marketing it complete we can get everything ready to list for sale.

Typically the first weeks it’s listed you can expect the most amount of activities.  This is where the initial ad expenses gets eaten up.  The longer you property stays on the market the more it costs in marketing. 

Again that is our risk to take as we only get reimbursed once the properties sells so I want you to know our interests are both aligned.

We could spend thousands of dollars on preparation, but it will be worth it in the long run.

It’s also during this time that we are coordinating showings and getting feedback from showings. it’s important we keep a close eye on activity early on.  We can’t predict when they want to see the properties, it’s just our job to be available to accommodate them when they do.  

Eventually the home will go under contract and once it’s done we are about halfway there.

We’ll have to facilitate the transaction to closing which consists of handling inspections, contingencies, and making sure all parties are held accountable.    Ultimately, there's just a lot of time involved

I hope this walked you through the exact breakdown of costs to working with us so that you may get a better idea of exactly what you are getting.

If you have any additional questions please feel free to reach out to me.  I’d be happy to put together a closing costs estimated worksheet for you so you may get more defined on your bottom line whether you are buying or selling real estate, we’d love to help you make an informed decision.