You’re point about the public not having a say (and rightfully so) in the salary of Inman execs was spot on. To provide ‘Joe the Plumber’ an equal voice in this forum would be ludicrous; and would it not open the door to negotiations for all of America’s goods? Hmmm, maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing. When I get home I’m gonna call my electric company and see if I can barter down the utilities bill…

I really have no issue with a client asking me to lower my commission. The answer is a simple no. I have built a business model and marketing plan around generating a certain amount of income. If they don’t see the value I’m bringing, they can shop elsewhere. This isn’t arrogant, it’s called common sense.

Who negotiates with their doctor, CPA, attorney, grocery store?? No one. You have the right to buy from whomever you want. The market determines value not the seller.

I would love to see us go to an hourly model. If my sellers paid me by the hour, I don’t think I’d have listings sitting on the market and overpriced. Buyers tend not to get distracted by this because they don’t “feel the pain” of paying us.

This is all about educating the client. I sit down with every client for 1-2 hours before we agree to work together. We discuss their needs, goals and I make sure they understand how I get paid. If they’re not comfortable and willing to sign an Exclusive Listing/Buyers Agreement, all I’ve spent is a few hours. I can write this time off to good use rather than driving them around, seeing houses and then finding out they don’t want me to get paid.

Real estate is a service business. Every year I accumulate more knowledge, insights, market awareness and invest in better tools. However, my fee does not go up every year. In fact, given the current market, my fees are lower today due to lower prices. Should I add a gasoline surcharge, multiple trip surcharge, checked baggage surcharge like other industries?

I don’t think the market will go for that and I’m not interested in that kind of business model. The next time someone questions your compensation, ask them about theirs. That usually stops the discussion.

Good luck out there.

They’ll last as long as there are members of the public willing to support that model and members of the industry who find it to be a viable model for their business.

You are darn right Jay, the contract should be between the buyer and the seller. I am a buyer more often than an agent. That is why I don’t want you, the real estate commission, or the state legislature telling ME what can be in MY offer.

If my buyers agent is a terrific guy and I want him to get paid more by the seller I should be able to put that in my offer. And NO ONE should tell me the buyer that I can’t.

My solution – get rid of the middle man, get rid of the broker. I don’t see where the broker adds value to the situation. Have ALL agents trained to the broker level. Essentially I am saying get rid of agents and only keep brokers.

I would allow brokers to form an “agency” to combine costs like advertising but the two tiered commission structure makes no sense.

Under a listing commission there are options we can go over with the seller how much service do they want and are willing to pay for. We have charged as high as 4.5% for a lisitng commission where we took complete care of the property and prsented the home to each buyer and/or agent. We have taken less depending on a what the client wants and are they repeat clients, etc.

We discuss selling commissions separatley based upon how the home is priced and other needs of the seller. We have received up to 4% commission on sales including REOs.

There are to many variables in each listing that are different from other listings to set one dollar value or percentage to cover all listing and sales commissions.

In my opinion, discussing commissions is a far cry from anti-trust price fixing and cartel formation. But I am clearly not an attorney, nor do I play one on TV, the radio or Internet.

Which is exactly why I got direct feedback from the Arizona Associations of Realtors attorney on precisely this topic.

I hear “we can’t discuss commissions” all the time from agents and brokers. I’d love to have someone cite a reliable source or case law precedent that says openly discussing commissions violates any rule or regulation. So far, no one I’ve met or talked to has been able to produce such a source. Ever.

Yes you absolutely can and should advertise what you charge that is way different from discussing it. I may be wrong on this but until I get more information from a qualified source I won’t be leaving comments on public web sites.