No, as a buyer, it costs you absolutely nothing to use a Realtor. In Florida, real estate sales commissions are paid out of the seller’s proceeds.
Effectively, that means that buyers don’t incur any cost to have a Realtor working for them. We can’t emphasize this concept enough, as the value of working with a Realtor to purchase a property and advocate for you is well established in our Florida Real Estate book. We also highly recommend using a Realtor who is exclusively working for you as a Buyer’s Agent.
How Does it Work? Who is in Charge of A Property Listing?
The listing’s data is owned by the real estate broker who has secured the listing agreement with the property owner. Each MLS system (and there are many) enables reciprocal agreements between brokers to be set up, and as much information to be shared about each other’s properties as possible, enabling agents and brokers to make commissions on one another’s listings
How Much is A Realtor’s Commission and How is it Paid?
In the Listing Agreement between the Seller and the Listing Broker, one of the provisions specifies the total percentage of commissions to be paid based on the sale price of the property, as well as the commission split between the Listing Broker and Buyer’s Broker. In our experience, this percentage ranges from 5-7%. The majority of the time the Listing Broker splits the commission 50/50 with the Selling Broker. The Listing Broker, by participating in the MLS system, agrees to pay a percentage of the selling broker’s commission.
So it costs you nothing to use a Realtor for your purchase. However, here are some ways it may cost you NOT to use a Realtor … these are all examples of knowledge an experienced Realtor may bring to the table:
He or She May Know:
- If a property is poorly built, or is much older than it appears or is being listed as.
- Has had problems in the past
- Was purchased at too high a price
- When the home was last on the market
- They may have been inside properties you are comparing in the past
- They may have knowledge of local homes about to come on the market
- They may know areas that have issues such as poor drainage, high water levels, poor soil, or ground pollution, or unsavory neighbors.
- They may have an intimate knowledge of the town’s zoning laws and restrictions or planning that has been passed and will affect the home you’re looking at.
- They may have knowledge of the particular departments of the City administration, how easy or hard it is to get planning and change restrictions.
- They may know if a developer is in trouble financially.
If you’d like to a very experienced Realtor sign up for a 20 minute highly informative Sarasota Real Estate Orientation with Lee.
