Hiring a real estate professional is a great decision if you want an expert on your side; negotiating on your behalf, looking out for your best interests, and guiding you from contract to closing. The commission a real estate agent charges isn’t set in stone, and may be different from agent to agent, though there may be ways to help you save money.
The Double Deal
It’s quite common for a real estate agent to offer an incentive if you utilize their services for both the sale of your home and the purchase of your new one. If you’re moving within the same market, or a comparable market that your agent specializes in, you might want to investigate any incentives for keeping your agent around.
Often times the agent’s workload is decreased due to the client being the same. The contract details can be drawn up quickly, and an agent can knock out two birds with one stone in various meetings along your milestone timeline. Because of this, it’s perfectly justifiable to ask for help in the commission department.
It’s not Free
While offering an incentive to use a real estate agent back-to-back is commonplace, offers to work pro-bono aren’t. If you expect a real estate agent to work for free on either end, your negotiations for a lower commission may hit a brick wall. Quite a bit of preparation, personal face-to-face meetings, negotiations, time, money and administrative work go into both listing a home for sale and purchasing a new one, so it’s justifiable for a real estate agent to get paid for their work.
At the end of the day, remember that a real estate professional is a person who has dedicated him-or-herself to understanding the real estate market, and is an experienced student of the game. Their fiduciary duty is to represent your best interest at all times, and they can potentially save you thousands of dollars, if not tens of thousands in the long run.
Make the Right Hire
Hiring a quality real estate professional will get a person on your side that will do whatever it takes to make your transaction as smooth and stress-free as possible. Find someone to team up with that will dedicate themselves to you, and if any incentive is offered to use them again—then all the better!
Author Jeff Hammerberg is the Founding CEO of www.GayRealEstate.com ~ Free Instant Access to the Nation’s Top Gay Real Estate Agents, Lesbian Realtors and Gay Friendly Real Estate Professionals Coast-to-Coast.
