Brokerage Fees

50/50, you can always try to negotiate a tier structure if the buyer has no representation and there is only one broker getting paid at closing.

REBNY rules state that you have to go 50/50 unless there's a side agreement between the firms. So if I take a listing at 6%, I can advertise the co-broke as 2.5%, but if a REBNY member brings in the buyer, I'm going to end up paying the co-broke out at 3%.

I can certainly offer to pay out more than 50%, so I could take a listing at 6% and offer the co-broke at 4%, but that's usually a red flag to the buyer's broker that something is wrong with listing and/or price.

ali r.
DG Neary Realty

Ali, i am not sure that is correct, Rebny rules state that the commission will be split 50/50 unless the LISTING agreement specifies otherwise. Many people take listing agreements where the brokers are not compensated equally, the biggest example being new development, usually the developers rep is paid less than buyer's rep. Also I have seen many brokers take listings where they as exclusive agents are getting 2 or 2.5 percent, and the buyer's agent gets 3 percent.

I think what Ali is referring to is that you can't take a listing at 6% and "put it out" offering the selling broker 1.5% to discourage selling brokers (i.e. as a way around the forced co-broking rule)

ahh, that makes more sense, i think i was interpreting it backwards

30yrs - your statement makes a lot of sense. i saw listings from Park Terrace Realty, Park Slope, a few years back that did just that. They were listing 1 to 1.5% commission split of 6%. This is why it took them, even in the hot market, 6+ months to sell properties.