Got an offer earlier today on one of my listings from a Keller Williams Team Agent. They are charging the buyer with A $495.00 transaction coordinator fee plus a $50.00 Imaging Fee.

In addition to that, they are asking for the seller to pay $10,000 towards the buyers closing costs.

What few will some brokers come up with next?

Guess who will pay that $495+50?. The seller, it will come out of that $10k or whatever the seller will pay.
They do the same here. They really should be raked over the coals IMO, they are not providing additional service for that.
As a seller, I would counter that the commission amount offered to the selling broker be reduced by 495+50, if it's to come out of the sellers contribution.

Ink fee- 10 bucks. Pens do not grow on trees.

Recycling fee- 25 dollars. Its the green thing to do.

Economic Stimulas Charge- 75.00. We promise to release the money into the economy.

I have not seen these fees yet, but i'm sure they will be a coming!

That's a good one!



I have a few Carbon Credits I'd like to sell to you.

how did you see that so early? i hate admin fees or whatever they are called, but normally the other side would not see it durring negotiations.

i dont know anywhere that does not have some sort of junk fee that is passed to the buyer and seller.

I hate it when I get an offer on one of my listings that has the buyer paying "coordination fees" or whatever.

I haven't seen an "imaging fee" before- is that like, for making copies? I don't get it.

Never have and never will.

I called 10 brokerages this past week getting info on commission splits and agent fees paid to the brokerage. All but one had "Admin" fees.

when i get an offer in it shows total amounts, not breakdowns....i mean if hte $ amount works, what does it matter what junk fee it goes to.

for instance....if a home is listed for 500k the offer might be for 500k then there is a standard cluases addendum that we have seller and buyer initial and it has an amount in there for closing cost, points, prepaids and that is it. the seller does not know if it is going to points or junk fees...they can negotiate the $ amount if they want.

No wonder the consumer thinks badly of us.

I have never seen or heard of them around here. But from what I have read on different forums they are either becoming the norm or signaling the downfall of some brokerages.

We have no listing or transaction fees, don't charge sellers for advertising or copying or anything. We charge buyers absolutely nothing to cart them around to see houses (one reason I work hard to get them prequalified!) . . . But we are a small company, and one of the few left in our town that does not charge junk fees. We advertise that we don't, and we tell everybody we talk to that we don't.

Many larger National firms like (Prudential) are big on charging their Agents junk fees. Some Agents pay for them on behalf of their client, which then actually costs the agent more than the $350.00 because the broker takes their split then takes their $350.

In my area, Northern California, this became common around 1998 when the "Help you Sell" type firms became popular. Guessing... Agents were discounting commissions to compete, so Brokers started charging the fee to their agents outside of their commission split. It's probably a bigger problem now that Banks, Assets firms etc, are stripping commissions in the 11th hour on short sales and REOs.

I think the Brokerages earmark those funds to keep that end of the business running. The Banks (lenders) seem to understand junk fees. Weird but the Banks will negociate away, or make business decisions that costs them thousands of dollars, but will fight to the death on some $125.00 bank fee.

So I think the Real Estate Brokerages have realized that (Banks & Governement) Fannie Mae or Bank of America see a "fee" OK to charge, but won't pay a full commission. (I hate it too.) Many Seller's which are(Banks REO) Under current practices, pay commission "on net only". So if the Buyer asks the Seller to pay 5% closing costs or require some other consideration, the Buyer has (in effect) just reduced both Agents Commissions. These fees being outside of the Commission doesn't usually get trimmed. Most Brokerages charge the Agent this fee even if the Agent did the transaction at a discounted rate, or for FREE to the Buyer or Seller for that matter.

Yet another example of why I love corporations so much and the public thinks so highly of our industry. We are supposed to put our clients interests ahead of our own and then the company you work for does this? This is why I am at a small local independent company. We can and DO put our clients first. No junk fees or hidden charges. To me that is the honest and ethical way.

Heard about an agent that charged a "PIA" fee. When asked what it means, he was honest - it's a fee for how big a "pain in the a@@" the client is. I guess he's got a sliding scale of some kind. I gotta admit, I don't have the guts to try to put that on a HUD1 but it sure is tempting sometimes...