GTA Real Estate commisions

[GTT1]

My father plans on listing his home for sale. We plan on interviewing a number agents and wonder what is lowest selling commission we can arrange through a major broker such as Re-Max, Royal Lepage and using MLS. House is in Pickering, value 400,000+.

Please no private messages as they will be ignored.

[fishstick]

Don't interview agents unless you want to be laughed at and have none of them take your listing.

[monomono]

You must offer 2.5% to the cooperating agent (buyer's agent) or you risk them ignoring your listing.

Realistically, I think 4.0% is the best you can do. Less than that and your agent will either not work hard or be very green.

Bear in mind that most agents give 50-70% of thier commission to their brokerage. So if they list for 4.0%, their portion is 1.5%, and if the agency split is 30/70, they will gross $1800 from a 400k house. Don't expect a good agent to work his/her butt off for that.

[GTT1]

Don't interview agents unless you want to be laughed at and have none of them take your listing.

So you would just pick a name and take them without talking to them to find out what they want to do?

Would it surprise you to know I have lined up 4 agents. All were advised of the process. We want to talk with them and get what they will do for us. Specifically asked if they had any concerns doing an evaluation on the house knowing they would be going up against other agents. Not one refused several commented that was a smart approach.

I would think getting an Agent to list on MLS for 4% would be difficult. I was assuming somewhere between 5 -6% would be necessary.

[monomono]

5% or over is a rip off IMO. 4.5% is fair if they promise to do a lot of advertising.
Recently, I listed with the #1 agent (by unit volume and dollar volume) in a GTA district, and paid 4%.
For another property, I listed for 3.5% with a different agent.
Both were on MLS, 2.5% buyer's agent commission, and the property values were not far off yours.

[eelfliw]

If you want to save money, try the FSBO route first. Only if that doesn't work, then call agents.

During the FSBO, you'll be swamped by agents looking for business. Talk to them and ask them to justify their cost (5% on a $400K house is $20K) to you. If the agent can't even sell their own services to you, how can they sell your home?

[Bullseye]

4% is easy as asking with most agents, if you are using them as buyers agent on your next purchase. Possible without that, too, of course.

Regarding 2.5% to buyers agent, this will certainly ensure scuzzy agents still bring their clients to you, but I think in this wired world, it is not entirely necessary. Many buyers (myself included) now search MLS.ca themselves regularly when looking, or cruise neighbourhoods they like. If someone sees your home on MLS or the sign on the street, and asks their buyers agent to show it to them, do you think they would refuse because they know the commission to them is less than 2.5%? If they did, I suspect the buyer would be looking for a new agent.

Of course, a scuzzy agent may try to talk them out of the property for no good reason, so I agree that it's a riskier gambit. Depends on your time requirements to get out, and the degree of your desire to save on sale costs, I suppose.

[rb]

If you want discounted real estate - the best places to go are smaller brokerages or the discount shops - Re/max and RLP fee's are high - so there agents have less room to move then othere. If your father is buying through the same agent he may be able to get a better deal as well.

BTW the 2.5% to co-op is true

and if you pay over 5% you are being taken