Pays to negotiate, Consumer Reports says
Ask your real estate agent to charge less, and chances are, he or she will, according to a new Consumer Reports survey:
Forty-six percent of sellers CR surveyed attempted to negotiate a lower commission rate. Roughly 71 percent succeeded. The survey also found that sellers who paid commission rates 3 percent or lower were just as satisfied with their brokers’ performance as those who paid 6 percent or more, suggesting that haggling can’t hurt.The survey, the results of which are in the September issue of Consumer Reports, included more than 9,100 people who sold or tried to sell homes with real estate agents from 2004 to 2007 -- in other words, during both the boom and the slump.
Comments
So 71% of 46% is 25%, and yet some of those managed to get a rate BELOW 3%, while the other 75% of sellers presumably paid the standard 6%?
Something fishy is going on here.
Posted by: Jerm | August 5, 2008 3:17 PM
Well -- I wouldn't think that everyone who didn't negotiate or who negotiated unsuccessfully would end up with 6 percent, just because not all agents use 6 percent as their standard. But that's just a guess, since I was in no way involved in the survey.
Posted by: Jamie Smith Hopkins | August 5, 2008 3:23 PM
Realtors? Who needs 'em?
Posted by: darnell | August 6, 2008 11:31 PM
there good real estate co & agent out working hard offering a discount fee while giveing full service, send the big box co. the message large is just a size !!!
Posted by: michelle | August 9, 2008 10:57 PM