do any other the big brokerage house accept a 5% exculsive?

like corcoran? bellmarc? eilliman? citi habitat? brown harris?

Hi:

I'm new to this board, but in answer to your question, it would depend on what & where you were selling?

Commissions are always negotiable, on the table, under table!

Corcoran will do a 5% deal if the property is $1 Million or more. I would venture to guess the other big firms follow suit.

Interesting side note is that this board is swarming with brokers and none of them will ever confirm that their firms do commission deals below 6%.

I'm a real estate agent and I will confirm that all commissions are negotiable over the table.

However in general, commissions are going up, not down, from the height of the boom. If it is going to take twice as long to sell an apartment, a good broker is going to argue that they'll need to clear a certain fee in order to make money.

The best way, as a seller, to negotiate a low commission is to indicate that you'll accept a reasonable sales price. It makes more sense for an agent to argue for 5%, or even lower, of a price that will clear in three months, as opposed to trying to take 6% or even higher of a price that won't clear for a year.

Most good agents would rather have a thinner margin per transaction and make their money on volume.

ali r.
{downtown broker}

well said Ali

So, Ali, in 2006 when apts. were selling in a day, real estate agents would have agreed to a 3% fee because there was so little work needed to sell the apt? Of course not, so your comment is BS

And when you interview for an exclusive, you and all of your ilk say you can get top dollar for the seller so you can get the listing, so it is YOUR fault that an apt. does not sell, because you priced it too high in order to get the listing.

And isn't it your fiduciary responsibility to get the best price for your client? It sounds like you are "tying" your fee to the amount of work/price you will recommend to the seller...the higher the fee, the more work you will put in???

So in summary, when the market is strong you deserve a full fee for the value you bring and when the market is weak you deserve a full fee becasuse you have to work more than a week to sell an apt??

Just pure BS

Apt_boy --

My clients are happy with the work I do to earn the fees I charge; that is why they hire me.

If you don't want to hire me -- or any agent -- fine, but don't "assume" that you know what I'd say in a pitch. ("Top dollar" for one thing, sounds straight off a surburban sales training tape; for another, I don't "bid for" or "buy" listings by quoting ridiculous prices to potential sellers, which is one reason I only have one or two listings at a time instead of several.)

To move from anecdotal stories about commissions to aggregate data, Real Trends magazine found real estate commissions have been rising since bottoming out in 2005. The link is here: http://money.cnn.com/2007/10/30/real_estate/commissions_rise/index.htm

ali r.
{downtown broker}

Ali girl, you just don't get it

Thanks for the straight answer Ali. One could argue that a surplus of agents will drive down commissions, but there's also a surplus of inventory. In any case, time will tell, but I'm doubting that we'll see commissions go up much or at all given the pricing levels in Manhattan.

no apt_boy, you don't get it. ali has been a great poster on this and other boards for some time, and you are just an a$$

only good agents would rather have a thinner margin per transaction and make their money on volume.

the rest wont be agents for much longer.

ccdevi - boo hoo, i am so hurt by your comment, and you are the a$$, but an a$$ without $$

wow, good one