What my agency will be doing
We will not share fees agency to agency
In late June we announced that Jack Gately Real Estate will no longer offer agency to agency co-operating commission. In fact, we just accepted an offer on a home that we listed on the MLSPIN with a 0% offer of co-operating commission. The buyer agent included a request for compensation directly from the seller using the additional provision section of the offer form.
We believe the policies adopted in this post represent the most conservative path forward and carry the least liability in the current regulatory environment, but remember I’m not an attorney and you should seek your own legal advice.
Moving forward, my agency will no longer be offering co-operating agency to agency commissions for the sale of real estate of any amount or percentage in the MLS or on any alternative platform or in actual practice. If a buyer wishes they can request the seller to pay the buyer agent fee as part of their offer.
Jack Gately, June 20, 2024
But tomorrow, Thursday July 25th, MLSPIN will begin to offer new options for posting offers of agency to agency compensation.
We would prefer that MLSPIN, and in fact all MLS systems, cease the publication of compensation data completely.
Since the MLSPIN graphic above (effective June 25, 2024) reflects offers of agency to agency compensation only, not offers of seller to buyer agent compensation, the only acceptable option for Jack Gately Real Estate will be “Unspecified.” Preferably we would prefer to leave all the fields blank, but the artwork published by MLSPIN indicates that “unspecified” is the default answer.
Conversely, in representing a buyer, notwithstanding offers of compensation posted in MLPSIN, our offers we will request payment directly from the seller.
And while we’d prefer MLSPIN to discontinue the publication of all compensation data, we reluctantly look forward to the potential roll out in Q4 that might allow for the publication of seller to buyer broker compensation.
Our firm remarks will state: “Seller may or may not entertain compensation to buyer brokers, requests for buyer broker compensation should be made in writing at the time of offer.” In other words the seller’s inclination to pay a buyer broker fee is variable upon the quality of the offer. For purpose of exaggeration, on a $500,000 listing if a buyer broker submits a $600,000 offer with a 3% fee, the seller would most likely agree to pay the fee. But the seller will be much less likely to pay a buyer broker fee on a $400,000 offer.
The key here is that the buyer broker will now be forced to consult with the buyer directly on the size of the fee. The fact that the buyer and buyer broker don’t know what the seller might be willing to accept or what other potential bidders might offer, will result in the appropriate downward pressure on buyer side fees sought by the DOJ, to the ultimate benefit of the consumers we are pledged to serve.