You never hired an agent to tell you what they were making. As far as hiding information, the commission is confidential information between the listing agent and their client. The private information shared by the agent and their client, whether it is the commission, the seller's bottom line, etc is not going to be shared with you, since you are a customer and not a client.

You did have the advice of agents helping you make your offer beat the other offers from buyer represented by agents: the free advice of the agents on this forum. So none of us feel threatened by you.

Charlotte's assertion is ludicrous. Pretend I sue ABC company for damages I incurred due to their gross negligance. My attorney likes my case and takes it for 33% and thinks we can collect 1 million. Neither ABC company nor their lawyer are privy to the deal I have with my lawyer, nor should they be. Can you see ABC company telling their lawyer not to settle for a million, but only as high as 900k, because my lawyer is taking too high of a percentage? Absolutley ridiculous. The suit amount is the suit amount. Decide it on it's merits.

Pretend I have major surgery and rack up 100k in medical bills. After copays and deductables I pay $5000 and the insurance company settles the remainder of the bills with the doctors and the hospital. Since the insurance company is a large player the hospital and the insurance companies settle on a payment of 70000, instead of the owed 95000. Can the patient go back and demand a portion of his $5000 deductable back since the insurance company worked a deal. No way.

I am buying a car. Do I ask the sales guy what he makes so I can get a better deal for myself?

As far as a house goes, the price is the price and you negotiate the price. I am tired of know-too-much folks digging into the commission agents earn, trying to get a better deal for themselves. Like you said Charlotte, hire me and I will tell you what I earn. I might even negotiate with you. Or go FSBO, I care not. Otherwise, the commission is none of your business.

Too nosey.

Charlotte,

Congratulations on getting the house.

For the sake of future buyers who might read this thread, I want to clarify a couple of things.

First, I need to emphasize that there is NO STANDARD commission. Commissions vary. There may be a commission percent which is more common in your area than others, but commissions are negotiable.

Second, I want to elaborate on what STEW said. By looking at the figures on the listing, on your contract, or on the HUD1, you do NOT know how much commission either agent made. You can see TOTAL commission, but you have NO WAY of knowing what the agent(s) made. Commissions are paid to the agencies involved and then split out to agents--part goes to the agency itself and part goes to the agent. The split percentage is not revealed on any of the paperwork in your transaction. In other words, all commissions are actually split four ways. In the case of an REO property, the listing side of the commission is almost always less than the selling side.

If the total commission is 5%, the listing side may be 2% with the selling side 3%. Even in a 2% listing side split, there may be a referral fee that is deducted or otherwise paid by the listing agent--meaning that an REO commission is split three ways on the listing side and two ways on the selling side.

So what you are saying Doin' bpose is that you have never asked your client or potential buyer any personal questions to try to determine what kind of financial condition, time rush or how serious they were with an offer and perhaps if they could offer more money on the property? Arent' those nosey questions that deal directly wtih a person's income? And if so how can you tell others not to ask nosey questions? Double Standards, that is what I'm tired of.

"I am buying a car. Do I ask the sales guy what he makes so I can get a better deal for myself? "

OF COURSE, that is why some people prefer to buy private listings to avoid having to pay for higher costs due to things like staff overhead, comissons, rent, etc.

Other's prefer the knowledge and perks like limited warranties or return policies of a used car dealership.

It's a buyer's choice to learn the differences and negotiate the best deal with who ever they want to buy the car from. Geting insurance or suing someone are not direct analogies because client is not buying a piece of physical property.

This difference we have illustrates my point well.

I always ask these questions. It is the first thing I do. I must ask them to do my job well. I think you might learn more about agency. That is the point of it all. Any client/agent relationship involves this interview process. When clients withhold information it makes agentcy very difficult and often the process becomes futile. It is not a double standard, it is an established relationship. Think teacher/student, apprentice/mentor, daughter/mother.

REO sellers usually more than one reason for wanting a certain price, is the portion attributed to the listing and/or buyers agent commission your only concern for getting the best deal? If so, what if the sales price included a 6%, 8% or 10% loss recovery fee (or something like that) and did not include a commission, how would you react then? Just curious!

Charlotte - If the agent belongs to the Million Dollar Club, they must make a $1,000,000

Simple reasoning

The problem with the Charlotte buyer feels their position is the only one. It's why the argument keeps going on and on.

Basically in this world there are all types of buyers and sellers.

You could walk into a store and one salesman moves away from a particular buyer and another gravitates towards them.

I used to have a funny picture I had as soon as people walked into my car audio business. It said (radio installation 55.00-If you want to HELP 100.00)

The point is I would get people bringing me a car full of wires with THEIR help that I had to tear out and the job took twice as long.

If you are interested so much in real estate you need to get a license.

I love that there are different buyers and sellers out there so I can let someone else have the ones that are too much trouble.

Of course you ask those questions for your own client! I'm not talking about YOUR client, Im talking about the competition!

So when you are representing a buyer don't you try to find out what the seller's motivation is. Are they getting divorced, did they loose their job, when are they moving, how much money do they make and how long can they afford to pay two mortages, etc. All nosey questions that any good buyer's agent would love to get the answers to, to help their clients get a good bid in.

And there's nothing wrong with it at all, it's competitive and keeps people on their toes.

Seems like nosey-ness goes both ways. So no need to bash it.

charlotteNCbuyer: How is your purchase going? Since you made an offer through the listing agent, is it safe to say that you have little experience with a buyer's agent? You have no idea how a buyer's agent could have helped and protected you. For someone who has no trust in an agent's expertise and honesty, however, you sure do seem interested in trying to get free insight from the real estate agents here. Or are you a troll, merely picking fights?

Our business is similar to yours in many ways. Everybody has a camera and believes they can take photos, even portraits. The irony in our business, however, is the very tools that make YOU believe you do not need us (realtor.com, numerous internet sites, newspaper ads, real estate magazines, etc) are the very services that WE pay for through our ads and participation. Selecting a house is a very small part of the process, just as is snapping the shutter. All of the background knowledge, in your business and ours, comes into play at every juncture.

Good luck out there on your own. We have answered "straight-forward" your questions. We do try to help visitors, but you have an attitude that we cannot overcome. Good-bye.

My purchase is going fine. I have a signed contract and a lawyer doing the title work. I have already thanked people on this forum for their insight. I do not appreciate being called Nosey though, saying I have an attitude when I have not personally attacked anyone and think there is a double standard. Also Lizl, you do not speak for other people, the correct pronoun to use is "I" not "We".

Although in the end, it was just a simple matter of me having the best offer out of the competition. In fact there was another offer that was higher than mine by $6000. I know the other buyer had a realator and maybe it required a bank mortgage as well. Personally I think the bank was happy for my cash offer and to not pay the 2.5% commission to a buyers agent and that is why they took my offer, not because I gained some great competitive advantage from this forum. In fact I think if I would of gotten a buyers agent it would of worked against me because the bank would have to pay a comission, making my offer less appealing.

The bank still pays the same amount of commission. The seller offers the Listing agent X amount to sell the property.

The Listing agent offers the buyers agent 1/2 the amount to bring a buyer. Thats an agreement between the two brokers.

If the listing agent finds a buyer he gets the entire amount as bouth the listing angent and the buyers agent.

Also the fact that your cash offer beat an offer contingent on financing/appraisals is the key.

You might have been able to get an even better deal if you had used an experienced buyers agent in your area, but you will never know. It is sad that the bank paid for that buyers agent for you to use to get a better deal and you did not take advantage of the free help.