I commonly get asked this question at the end of a listing presentation, and it such an important part of the conversation, often the general public has never thought of it until they’re in the situation (and why would they?).

I commonly get asked this question at the end of a listing presentation, we’ve gone through all the steps of the process of buying or selling and finally the question that has been on their mind the whole time: “How do you get paid?”

So, let me clear up the confusion and tell you exactly how a realtor gets paid when you are buying or selling your home.  

The first thing to know is the Seller is always responsible for paying the commission. Buyers rejoice—you’re off the hook. Let’s look at a scenario to clear up how this happens:  

Sally Home Seller is listing her home for $475,000. Luckily for Sally, her home didn’t stay on the market long and she got an offer above asking for $500,000. Sally accepts the offer and now we have to figure out commission. So, I as the listing agent gets 2.5% and the cooperating agent (who represents the buyer) also gets 2.5%, which means we are both taking home $12,500 from this sale. Sally won’t have to worry about managing the funds as it is the Real Estate Lawyer’s Job to do so. Which means once the sale is complete Sally has nothing left to worry about but moving her things into her new home.

So as you can see all of the commission both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent will receive will come from the sale price of the listed home. Once the contract is signed at the beginning of the working relationship neither the seller nor the seller’s agent has to worry about the commission, it will all be taken care of by the real estate lawyer.

Does this help? Have more questions? Send me an email.