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Sacramento Real Estate Commissions
Sacramento real estate commissions are in direct proportion to ability.
It is not unusual for a seller to ask if I will take a lower fee than my usual commission, that is, to discount my standard commission, if they hire me instead of one of the other dozen Sacramento real estate agents they are talking to. I understand the need to try to save money wherever one can in a real estate transaction because money is a seller’s main concern and my responsibility to manage. But Sacramento real estate commissions are the wrong place to look. My primary two focal points when working as a listing agent are to save money for my sellers and to make money for my sellers. That’s why home sellers tend to hire a real estate agent. To help manage the money. Maximize the profit.
They think they are hiring a Realtor to sell a home, but that’s not the whole picture.
As real estate agents, we manage our sellers’ money in a wide variety of ways, and Sacramento real estate commissions don’t really enter the picture. We manage our sellers’ money through our marketing and pricing strategy, our reach on the internet and through open houses, our extensive experience, our professional advice, our successful negotiation tactics and our unwavering ability to close the transaction in a seamless manner. Which means all agents are different.
It’s not enough these days to get a contract into escrow. That’s just the beginning, of course, before the inspections, before the pest reports, the roof inspections, sewer inspections, chimney inspections, other homes coming on the market that can detract, other homes closing that affect appraisals, and a bazillion other things that can happen in a real estate transaction, including buyer’s cold feet.
Who is gonna see a seller through that maize? Hopefully, it’s the Sacramento real estate agent who is managing the seller’s money. I get paid the same percentage that I’ve been paid for the past 40 years; whether prices go up or prices go down, I don’t get a raise. My Sacramento real estate commissions have remained constant. Although, sometimes sellers pay me more after closing. They think my standard fee is not high enough. They send me gifts. The best lately was a $500 gift certificate.
The other day a client asked if he could pay me a big bonus if his home sold in 30 days. That tells me that people think we will alter the way we do business if sellers dangle more money in front our faces, and that’s not true. A really good agent can’t be bought and sold like a commodity. Many Sacramento real estate agents, me included, are not all that motivated by money. Our motivation, whether you want to believe it or not, is truly seller satisfaction. Our income is a by-product.
In conclusion, I will listen to your situation and will not be offended to discuss my fees because all Sacramento real estate commissions are negotiable, but in the end, a seller will pay me what I am worth. And they will be ecstatic about it after the home sells and closes. That’s my goal. All agents should want this.
Is a Sacramento Real Estate Agent Worth the Money?
If you’re thinking about going into real estate because you want to make a lot of money for doing little work, you can figure on joining the 80% of real estate agents in Sacramento who don’t make enough money from the business to adequately support a ferret. This is not to say there aren’t Sacramento real estate agents who can’t even change out a light bulb who make money but they are not in the majority. Most of the agents who make a lot of money work very hard for it and have survived this grueling business.
I received an email this morning from a woman in Wisconsin who was very upset that she had to pay a commission to an agent, even though she agreed to pay it. Is a Sacramento real estate agent worth the money? She didn’t think so. She had read my article about How Much Do Real Estate Agents Make? She didn’t believe it was fair that she pay “6% on an $800,000 home,” which she also further stated had amounted to $60,000, so you can see she struggles a bit with math.
Apparently, she had hired an agent last year who had agreed to negotiate his commissions, whatever that meant. In my book, once you sign a listing agreement, you’ve pretty much agreed to the commission, but maybe they do things differently in cheesehead territory — which I can say because I’m from Minnesota and we are allowed to poke fun at those from Wisconsin, neener, neener. Regardless, this agent who would “negotiate” could not sell her home. So much for that agent.
Fast forward to this year, and she signed a one-party show agreement of sorts, I suspect. The agent showed up, brought a buyer, brought an offer and now they are about to go into contract. Is this woman overjoyed that her home finally sold at a price she was willing to sell? Hardly. The writer believes it is “offensive” and it is “insane” to pay an agent that sum of money. She wants to know how she can wiggle out of that obligation. For her, the question of is a Sacraemento real estate agent worth the money her entire issue.
This is a woman I can picture thinking about a career in real estate. The lucrative real estate business probably seems so simple and easy to her. She doesn’t see the years of struggling to pay the dues and learning the business. She imagines big stacks of gold hidden in the basement. In the overall scheme of things, agents tend to get paid exactly what they are worth.
I can’t say I’ve ever, in all of my 40 years in the real estate business, had a seller tell me I made too much money. I’ve had sellers give me gift cards as a bonus after closing, in one case recently, $500 extra, because they felt I wasn’t paid enough as a full-service agent. Nobody has ever asked is a Sacramento real estate agent worth the money when they hired me.
