The buzz after the first round of law suits against Realtors® has died down.  The second and third rounds are coming.  What does this mean to you?

SELLERS: Be aware that buyers will be asking you to pay for their agent.  Be prepared to negotiate. When listing, you should negotiate the commission amount to the listing agent based on that agent only and not on having to pay money to a buyers’ agent.

SELLERS’ AGENT:   Delete paragraphs 6 and 7 from the PAR® form XLS.  Advise the Sellers that buyers will negotiate directly with them and that you will not be part of any discussions for you to pay a co-operating broker fee.

BUYERS:  You have a contract with an agent.  Make sure you understand that either you will be paying the buyers’ agent fee outside closing or that the seller will pay. If the sellers will be paying. On the PAR® form Agreement of Sale, in paragraph 3(A) delete everything  from “In addition to any…. to the comma.  Then fill in the buyers’ agent fee you want the Sellers to pay.

BUYERS’ AGENT:  If you do not have a written agreement with the buyers setting out your fee, you should not be spending time showing houses.  Tell the buyers you will be preparing their offers with a paragraph providing for a commission to you.  If you have a buyer willing to offer $X and they are competing with a buyer making the same $X offer with no agent, raise the amount of the offer to $X +Y% so the commission can be part of the mortgage funding.

REALTORS®:   Never discuss a commission with another agent.

If you have a question call us at 610-696-2600. We are here to help. Two of the lawyers in the firm are licensed real estate brokers.