     Anonymous | Thursday, January 20, 2000 - 12:18 pm 
I know this will work from first-hand experience. Background: If you buy a house for $ 100,000, 6% ($ 6,000) commission is split 4 ways - your broker, your broker's agency, the seller's broker, and the seller's broker's agency each get one-fourth. (in this case, $ 1,500).
If you make sure your broker is the listing agent (the person's name that is on the For Sale sign), then the commission gets split 2 ways (because the seller's broker and the buyer's broker are the same person). So, in this case, the broker would get $ 3,000 and his/her agency would get the other $ 3,000.
Suppose you make an offer of the $ 100,000 and the seller is "thinking it over". While he is, someone else who has a differet broker calls the listing agent and says if the deal falls through they will offer $ 110,000. as a contingent offer (Legally, the broker cannot notify the seller of the new offer until they have rejected yours, although they could tell the seller that other offers are made, contigent on the refusal of your offer). Well, the broker would only make 1/4 of $ 6,600 or $ 1,650 if the seller accepts the higher offer, as opposed to making $ 3,000 if the seller accepts your LOWER offer.
The broker will do everything humanly possible to convince the seller to take your offer now. In my case, she spent an entire day with the seller convincing them, and never told them of the contingent offers. |
