Does a seller’s agent sell a home? Or does the home sell itself?

[Scott Szurek]

I’ve read a couple threads on commision didn’t really find out an answer for the question above. If there is a discussion already going please lead me to the right direction.

First off let me say my experience is minimal. I have only bought two properties and have yet to sell one. I can see for a first time buyer, a buyer’s agent getting paid a full 3% percent. We went to a million houses, had accepted offers on two houses - failed to pull the trigger on either - and finally about 9 months later bought the house at an auction with no turning back! Needless to say our realtor was extremely happy to take that earnest deposit cashier’s check from us.

The next house we bought was by going to an open house and talking with the realtors showing the property not the list agent (in fact she was the sister in-law of the listing agent). This home was a distressed property, vacant for over 36 months, had been reduced twice, and owned by the separated wife of the previous owner who was ready to cash out. We ended up getting a really good deal and gifted our agent ~$6000 commission. The deal would have happened regardless of what agent we used, we could have called anyone it would have happened because we the buyer had a bottomline purchase price that seller accepted. Looking back at it I should have negotiated a rebate from our agent. Further, throughout the closing process, the agent made some absolutely terrible paperwork errors, missed multiple sent documents, etc… Really just a complete hassle to work with.

I do however think that seller’s agents are grossly overpaid for turn-key, single family properties in hot, robust markets. Furthermore, in a market where there are multiple offers on a house the agent’s listing price has far less of an influence on the final selling price. In these types of markets the house rather than the seller’s agent make the sale.

The above leads me to these questions for all you seller’s agents out there:

1. In the market described above does a seller’s agent sell a home? Or does the home sell itself?
2. How much do you seller’s agents have to pay a broker for home sales in the $300,000-$600,000 range?
3. How do you justify your high hourly rates from “lay-up sales” like the one above? Is it because you decided to take on the potential nightmare first-time buyers, hoping to get referrals and future business from them?