If buyer-seller can't agree on $, will agents sacrifice their %?
Buyer gave me a low-ball offer. Then they came up to $95k all cash, saying that's the best they could do. OK.... Well, I said $99k was the lowest I would go, considering the buyer's agent commission % is really coming off the top, right? That would leave me with $96k. I've determined I could budge another $1.5k, but I need $94.5k after everything's said and done. Period. So that means $97.5k is the lowest offer I can accept.
Even if the buyer & seller won't budge, the buyer's agent could simply agree to a 0.5% commission, close the deal, and buyer & seller would both be happy. But there's really a whole range of percentages that the buyer's agent could agree to that are likely NEVER considered to be on the chopping block. If a buyer's agent could drop to 1.4% commission in this case, then the buyer would only need another $900 which seems reasonable. Everybody would be sacrificing to make the deal work. Does anybody ever try negotiating the agent commissions when you're within a couple percent price difference??
I've come down as far as I realistically can. $10k below asking. Is asking the buyer to come up $1000, and the buyer's agent to come down $1,000 too much to ask for? I mean... really, it comes down to how invested the buyers agent actually has been. How much work did they really do? What is their time worth? $35/hr for 56hours = $1,960. Buyer coming up $1,500 to cover that and buyers agent dropping commission to 2% could save her from another 56 hours of work...
Like I said, tho... there's a whole range of variable percentages that get us all to my rock bottom price. Can I get anymore outside the box than this?!? I'd imagine most negotiations aren't this tight.
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If you ever need a Realtor in Baltimore then please call someone else!