Hi Virginia:
the commission fees are negotiable. They are no fixed fees. If you are a seller and you hire a seller's broker in the contract that you will sign,will state how much will be the total commission and what percentage of that will go to the buyer's broker or the facilitator. It will be between you and your broker to discuss and agreed upon.
The RE broker could advice you as to how much commission is offered in your area, but you decide.
I hope that it is helpful.

Virginia there are two parts to answering your question, the first is every broker can choose what percentage of the total commission they will split with the buyer agent. in most cases it is 50% for the listing agent and 50% for the buyer agent, other offices will offer 40% to buyer brokers and keep 60%. The second part is it is illegal for any realtor to discuss an exact commission rate with anyone including other realtors, buyers, sellers and on online forums like this,. there are huge fines the government can impose even fo rthe first time. So to know what someone charged you have to call them and ask what they will charge to list your house and what percentage they will share with a buyer agent. I hope this helps and to those who have stated a percentage, they better go see their broker of record to discuss the fact they just violated the anti trust law on a public forum. good luck with your sale Virginia

Commission is a negotiable item, and how it's split is entirely up to the listing agency in conjunction with a discussion between the seller and the seller's agent.

In many areas it's de rigeur to split it evenly, some areas allocate a larger portion to the listing agent. In other words, it varies.

Great question - but it has many different answers. They are "typical" commission splits for a particular area, and a particular price range. Many times the split, meaning what the selling broker gets, and what the listing broker gets, are equal. Again, this can vary depending on the responsibilities of each side. For example, a listing agent that is working with a property that will be a short sale, may charge a little more, simply because of the additional work a short sale takes. The best thing to do, is interview many listing brokers, and determine the best fit for your situation. Remember, that you always get what you pay for!

You should consult with the agent/broker listing the property. Some offices do not split the fees equally, or offer different levels of compensation to the buyers broker, facilitator etc. It's typically an office policy. I've seen more and more offices not offering equal splits due to many reasons. This is something between the agents/brokers. Some buyers agency agreements do stipulate the percentage that the agent/brokerage will work on their behalf so for instance if a certain property were only offering 1.5% cooperating compensation to the buyers broker/facilitator then the buyer may be contracting to pay the difference between the 1.5% and the contracted perentage, in addition to the purchase price. That's why it's very important to take your time and review all contracts, if you don't understand something, don't sign & get the advice of a qualified attorney. That advice works for buyers or sellers.

Real estate fees are negotiable and legally they cant be set. However, if you are familiar enough with the area and you are on MLS often, you will find that they are normally 2.5% offered to a buyers broker and in turn, normally the selling broker gets 2.5% too

Hello Virginia-

Your question is a good one. Unfortunately, there is no good way to answer your question because (1) the division of fees varies from area to area, and (2) antitrust law restricts public discussion of actual commissions in a particular area because such a discussion might lead to price-fixing.

That last part may sound silly, but it's the law.

If you would like to know what Orange MA real estate firms charge for commissions and what they pay to buyer's agents, give them a call. They should be willing to talk with you about their own fee policies, even if they can not legally discuss anyone else's fees.

Les Black
Four Columns Realty
Orange, Massachusetts

Generally, but not always, whatever the seller pays in commission is split 50-50 between the seller's broker and the buyer's broker. Sometimes the seller offers a bonus to the listing agent if the house is sold within a certain time frame, and sometimes a bonus is offered the buyer's broker as an inducement to show the home and to bring in an offer that is acceptable to the seller.