Commission for real state agent in New Jersey

[Elizabeth Turin]

I want to sell a 2 family house in NJ. Anybody knows a realtor who charges less than 4% in commission in New Jersey, close to Newark, NJ?

Thanks!

[Kevin K.]

I flipped a house in Essex county a while back. The house was very nicely renovated, open floor plan and basically brand new looking. I didn't really need a listing agent to "sell" the house but did need buyer's agents to bring buyers so I did a flat fee listing where I paid 3% to the buyers agent. The listing agent just got paid a flat fee of $300 or so to list the property in the Garden State MLS. I setup a lockbox, created some flyers, put up a sign, did some light staging, took nice wide angle pics and got it into contract in 25 days. You can do other tactics like open houses, put a deadline for bids, update the listing so it sends new alerts, etc. I handled the initial negotiation and had the buyers agent submit the offer on the standard NJAR form contract. After that your attorney can take over during attorney review. I do feel that you do need to pay a buyers agent for bringing buyers to the home.

If your house is going to be difficult to sell then a listing agent can help market the property (i.e. Send marketing blasts, talk to other brokers who they have relationships with, etc). They obviously should get paid for it. I didn't need it. The fee can be negotiated down but depends on the market. In a market that's hot where there is low inventory and homes sell themselves, you can negotiate it down. Low inventory means agents are fighting to get closed deals.