Buyer Agent Strategy to Determine Co-Op Fees

[Stuart Udis]

I am hearing from a number of sellers (mostly developers) who are clearly being forwarded copy and paste emails from buyer agents evidenced by questions that aren't even relevant to the properties they are selling. However, the one constant in these emails is a request for the broker fee co-op and determining the offered co-op fee seems to be the motivation behind these emails. A few of the sellers I've spoken with  and who previously offered the broker fee as a marketing tool are getting frustrated with this type of behavior and want to shift away from offering a co-op and instead make it a negotiable concession when genuine effort is made on the part of the buyer agent.   My initial thought is to advise them to continue to offer the fee to avoid alienating buyer agents, especially if this is how buyer brokers are creating their short lists to share with clients. Is this a trend others are seeing?  How are others handling this?

[Jonathan Greene]

They should definitely keep offering a fee and letting it be known in advance, whatever they deem appropriate that will help them sell (2 percent and up in my market although it is always negotiable). The reason why is because the lawsuit was a sham and isn't helping sellers, it's hurting sellers dramatically.

Buyers can sign an agreement now and ask not to be shown properties that are not offering a co-op. This can allow buyer's agents to not show those properties based on the client's wishes. It's also making is such a pain because as buyer's agents we have to call and then to just have someone say it's negotiable (it always has been, but has always been decided by the seller) and just offer what you think is right is a disaster. This is why.

By not solidifying the buyer-side comp, now there is a negotiation between the buyer and their own agent. The agent may want 2-2.5-3 percent, but the buyer only wants to pay 1 percent just in case the seller declines. The goal of the lawsuit allegedly was to make it more transparent and now it is about 800x less transparent.