Earlier this week, I met with a potential seller client to discuss listing his home for sale.

We had a conversation about commission and it went a little something like this:

Seller: What’s your fee?

Me: Six percent, if I thought your home would be difficult to sell. But, since I’m pretty confident I can sell your home relatively fast, I’ll only take five percent.

Seller: Five? (taps his fingers on the kitchen table, thinking) So, if you sell my house for $400,000, you get $20,000?

Me: I don’t get to keep all of it, but you’ve got the right idea.

Seller: That seems a bit…steep. Can you do any better, Brent?

Any better? Part of me wanted to reply with, “Better? Are you kidding me? Do you have any idea what selling your home involves?”

But, of course, I was polite. I simply grabbed a pen and paper and began to break down for him exactly what a typical real estate transaction (in my market) looks like.Continue Reading