Why Discount Realtors Cost You Money

When selling a duplex, Realtors are often asked to reduce the amount of commission we charge. And while a commission structure is always negotiable, the money you think you may be saving may actually cost you a lot.

When an agent takes a listing, almost half of the percentage she agrees to charge is usually shared with the Realtor and their brokerage who bring a buyer to the table. This commission is advertised on the Multiple Listing Service.

In other words, a reduced commission may result in that payout amount becoming less than what most of the other sellers are offering through their agents. And while that won’t usually be a deal breaker for buyer’s agents, they may choose to show your property after the one with more competitive compensation, or ask their buyers to pay the difference.

Often, in order for you property to remain competitive, your agent may choose to work for less than he’s willing to pay the buyer’s agent; which may mean he’s less likely to negotiate hard for you.

And quite often, he just met you. He agreed for his family to live on less within minutes of meeting a total stranger. This doesn’t speak well of his negotiating skills.

A reduced commission may also result in your Realtor cutting the amount of money he spends on marketing your property.  The first place this usually happens is photography.

In today’s technology-driven world, recent National Association of Realtor’s studies show more than 90 percent of all buyers use the Internet to find property.

And the most important way to represent your duplex on the Internet is through photography.

Many discount agents use little more than their cell phone camera to communicate with all these prospective buyers. After all, hiring a professional photographer costs money.

This poor visual representation attracts fewer buyers. And we all know the more people you have who want to buy something, the more valuable it becomes.

Bad photos, also make it hard to create great-looking brochures and ads that entice the other 10 percent of the people in the market to come take a look at your property.

And of course, your Realtor won’t have money to spend on that advertising anyway.

As the saying goes, have you ever tried to save a little and had it end up costing you a lot?