What do I pay the real estate agent?

I might sell my house of 30+ years. I am naive about it.

An acquaintance said that you can ask the real estate agent to pay for closing costs (or something like that). Can someone give me an idea of what is paid to the selling real estate agent? Who pays? What do I pay when I sell the house.

In SFBA seller pays commission often 2.5 pct(finder fee to buyer agent) commission and listing agent fee which is often negotiable of total price. Depending on the locality there is a laundry list of fees, taxes, title insurance, recording fee etc that are born by sellers on top. There is inspections, staging, termite etc. These days it takes much more effort to market them. In Santa Clara County, for example, homes taking avg 39 days to sell. Condos TH will take longer. If you want the details PM to me give me the area/county.
Sam Shueh Realtor, Cupertino, CA

My question was for San Jose.

re: “listing agent fee which is often negotiable of total price”
What is typical fee?

It can depend on the value of your home. When I sold my townhouse about two years ago, I paid 4.5%(2.5% buyers agent, 2% sellers), but you can get a better break with more expensive homes, because the realtor does approximately the same amount of work while getting a bigger commission. I once talked to a buyer’s agent in Saratoga that was willing to rebate 2/3 of their commission. Talk to a few agents and see what they are willing to do for you.

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Our friend who is a realtor offered to give up the 2.5% commission the sale of current
home if we bought new home with him. If you’re buying a new home you could try that with agent.

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My impression is that 2.5% or so for selling agent is “typical” and you negotiate down from there. Redfin will sell for 1% which is probably the best you’ll get, but if you want extras like staging thrown in, 2%.

https://www.redfin.com/why-sell

Other places may include staging, inspections, advertising, and touch up in their fee, but charge 2.5%. You need to ask what you’re getting for that fee.

And as britt522 said, if you buy with the same person you sell with, they’ll often give you a price break.

In the past I paid 4.5% total (2.5 for buyer and 2 for listing agent), or 3.5% total if the listing agent represent buyer as well.

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We are planning to sell our home (1.4 mil - 1.6 mil) and buy another with a contingent offer.

We do not need staging and wanted to find out real estate commission rebate market trends.

I negotiated normal 2.5% on the new purchase but then only 1.5% for the sale of mine.

@britt522 Just to be clear - My understanding is when we sell we need to give 2.5% towards the buyer real estate agent commission and you negotiated 1.5% to your seller agent instead of the regular 2.5%.
Any rebate on the buying property real estate agent commission?

Yes so total on sale of our house in contract is 4 - 2.5% to buyers agent and 1.5% to my agent

I see top performing agents in Santa Clara openly advertise 1.5% for listing agent commission so I don’t think that’s even a negotiation anymore. Pretty much expected. It’s still a good chunk of money to the listing agent and makes sense when you look at the inflated RE valuations. IMHO, RE commission in Bay Area should settle at 3% total with 1.5% for each side.

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Looks like 4% (2.5% to buyer agent + 1.5% to seller agent) is common while selling a property. If we buy another property with the same agent I am hearing 1% commission rebate out of the 2.5% Buyer agent they get.
Overall it’s working out like @britt522 deal - Realtor offering 2.5% commission of the sale of current home if we bought new home with them.

As for the idea of asking the real estate agent to pay for closing costs, it is possible for the seller to negotiate with the listing agent to see if they would be willing to cover some or all of the closing costs. However, it’s important to remember that this is not a common practice, and it ultimately depends on the individual agent’s policies and willingness to negotiate.

Here are the real estate agent fees for 2024.
Average Real Estate Agent Commissions by State (2024 Survey).

If you also want to sell a house in Illinois, Just visit this link.: www.heartlandbuyshouses.com