We did a very unofficial survey of our Realtor friends to find out what they though about seller’s offering incentives to get their house sold fast.
Out of 15 respondents, the answers were pretty much 8 that they are helpfull to 7 that they do not help so much and should it be given to buyer or buyer’s agent it was 8 to the buyer’s agent and 7 to the buyer.
Some comments to think about:
If you are offering a pay incentive to the buyers agent, it might get the agent to look at the listing more closely and maybe show it a bit more because they might get paid more.
As to should it be in higher commission or bonus – on one hand we have the bonus that at some brokerages is not split with the broker, which is a big plus. But with a higher commission, even though it is not split with the broker, it usually does not have to be disclosed to the buyer that they are getting paid more and usually the agent gets the higher commission no matter what, where if a bonus is paid over and above, it often gets backed out of the sales price to figure commission or negotiated away for the buyer to get a better price. So over all, a higher commission seemed to be the better choice.
Last, if the house is priced right it is going to sell. No incentive is going to make the buyer like your house more and most buyers if they want concessions, especially closing costs paid or repairs are going to ask for them if they have a buyer’s agent who is doing their job.
So if you are going to offer incetives to get your house sold – boost those commissions and offer to pay seller closing costs up front.
click for the summary of the responses
