Buyer agent charging the buyer a fee?!

[Gaurav Mehta]

Hi everyone!

I’m in the process of purchasing my first investment property. After months of analyzing and looking at potentials, I finally found a property to make an offer on. The agent I’m working with who is very busy and always appeared uninterested until I found something to put an offer on.

When I decided to send an offer, she sent me a bunch of documents to sign, which I read carefully. However my agent is charging me a flat commission rate to work with her. She will also get the commission from the seller. However she says the fee she’s charging me is not for her but the brokerage she works for and it’ll be part of the closing cost. I feel uncomfortable paying for something that’s not a standard practice and seems unethical. Should I pay her the fee to maintain a long term relationship? Or should I fight it?

[Wayne Brooks]

That’s a Very common “transaction fee” charged by the brokerage...either you pay it or the agent does. It’s negotiable and as an agent I’d make the client pay it depending on 1) size of the deal/commission 2) complexity of the transaction  3) how much a PITA the client was.