The listing broker should set their fee for service at whatever they deem necessary – not what they read on a blog.

Cohen: You need to check your local MLS rules and regs, ours (THANK GOD) have done away with remarks over-riding the commission line. There are no Variable Rate Commissions. What you list as the commission in the commission line is what the buyer agent gets paid.

Listing Brokers need to train their agents better. Most MLS state that the commission in the commission line is what is paid for procuring a ready, willing and able buyer. If the listing agent isn’t prepared to take a loss, I a.) recommend that the listing agent get a backbone and standup to the lender who IS NOT A PRINCIPAL to the listing agreement and therefore has no right to negotiate the commission. They either accept or deny the contract. I don’t see them negotiating with the settlement attorney, trustee, home inspector or any other party to reduce their commission. If the risk manager for the lender agrees to cut their salary – I’ll agree to cut mine.
b.) the broker needs to be willing to pay the buyer agent commission regardless of what they make. That’s the risk they take with agents who can’t stand up to lenders, take short sales that couldn’t possible get approved, etc…

Both my state law and the Code of Ethics forbid negotiating the commission with the offer to purchase or even after you’ve “introduced the property to the client”. Therefore you have to negotiate the commission prior to showing the client.

This is complicated in that you typically also have an obligation to show a client all properties that meet their requirements, unless you have expressed permission to exclude certain properties. My best advise is to sit with the buyer, educate them on how potentially difficult it can be to purchase a short sale and how if you wait long enough, it’ll be REO’d and they can get it for cheaper anyway. (that’s in our area – may not be the same for yours)

There is a great program out there at RealtyU, called CSP or Certified Shortsale Professional. It’s a great one day program, that can be taken online and covers all of this.

The biggest issues here is all the variables, how is YOUR market, what are the rules and regs in YOUR state and MLS, which lender are your clients dealing with and how comfortable are you with the process.

Short sales are a real specialization. I know there are other agents that can do it better than I can. I don’t know how to do short sales well and I hope business doesn’t get to the point where I have to learn.

As soon as I find out a lead is a short sale, I offer them sympathy, not services.

It’s more than “monetarily there’s no gain but in theory it does give the ability to buy again.”

I’ve never been one that has subscribed to the whole “I sell real estate and it’s not about the money, it’s about helping people” philosophy. I work because I want to make a living and create a better life for myself and my family. If I didn’t have to work, I would not be interested in helping other people buy and sell real estate on, I would only be doing it for our family foundation.

Now, with my selfish motives out in the open – working the short sales that we have is a way to truly help people, and provide a life for my family at the same time.

It really does help people. Our sellers are ever so thankful. It’s a huge stress off their backs. Foreclosure is THE worst thing you can do to your credit, period. It’s a horrendous experience and stressful for sellers.

It’s about doing the best they can to ‘make good’ on a financial commitment. It’s about getting the stress off their back. It’s about securing the ability to overcome your mistakes and have a future. It’s about trying to save both them and the lender money by not having to go forward with foreclosure.

No, not every seller cares about any of this. But most do, no matter what types of loans they took out or how they spent the equity.

I needed to say all of this right now – I just got off the phone with the absolute worst “Recovery Specialist” I have ever dealt with and it’s taken me almost an hour just to ‘cool off’.