Hoping you can guide me on this. We are planning on putting our house on the market late April. Once we go on the market, we really need to sell within 3 months because my husband will be selling his business sometime in late May, early June. We are moving from NY to Puerto Rico. My question is, is it appropriate to set up some sort of % of sale incentive. Not even sure if something like this exists but I THINK I read here somewhere once. For example, 5% if sold in first month, 4% in second, 3% in third and 2% any time after that. Is that insulting? If the realtor doesn't sell within the first couple of months, do you think that they may not push so hard to sell the house because the commission would be lower? Does this make any sense? TIA

This message has been edited. Last edited by: melmel326,

I have heard of that being done. The case I heard something like the agent got 6% if it sold in the first month then it went down to 5%. Around here 5% is the standard and honestly, I don't think there are a lot of agents that would do a deal where the commission scales down to 4 then 3 then 2%. Especially these days where many houses are sitting for 6+ months. I guess maybe if it was a very high priced listing they might be though. I also think your listing may not be of as much interest to a buyer's agent if their cut of the commission could be as low as 1%.

What is the market like where you are? What's the average DOM? 3 months is a tight time frame in many markets these days. Can you get listed sooner than that? We listed at the end of last Feb. We were initially planning on April and were told by several agents that we'd miss too much of the Spring market.

I've also heard of something like this working, however the incentive was higher in the first month. I believe the incentive I read about was 8% the first month, 7% the second month and then commission fell to the area standard 6% thereafter. I think you'd be hardpressed to find an agent to accept the commission structure you're referencing.

remember - an agent only sells about 10% of the houses HE is under contract with.

There is not a lot an agent can do out of the ordinary that will bring a deal faster.

Why not price it right and not worry about the commission game? Even in tough markets, houses priced RIGHT....sell.

I actually did this about 20 years ago. Our agent, the same agent we used to purchase the house, when told of our plan to reduce the rate if not sold within a specific period of time, said she had to talk to her broker first. She came back and said yes.

I'm sure the thing going for us was that our home was in a very desirable neighborhood and we weren't in the kind of housing crisis we're dealing with right now.

I have to agree that most agents are going to balk at this idea now. You certainly could put a percentage premium on selling the house quickly, but that percentage should be 2-3% ABOVE the going rate for your area, maybe more and scale it down from there. I don't think it would be to your advantage to drop the rate below the average in your area though.

Hey, if you can afford it you might also offer a special deal for any buyer. A plasma TV, trip to Florida, $X,000 gift certificate to a furniture store, Home Depot, or business of their choice. Incentives certainly cannot hurt, but I would either reduce the incentive or eliminate it if the home does not sell within the time period you're shooting for.

Being from NY myself, I can tell you that the market here is very slow. On the average, houses are staying put for 6-9 mths. and sometimes longer. With that said, as far as the commission, I don't know too many agents that will agree to something like that (especially in this mkt.), I do know that the average right now is 3 or 4% commission.
You should've had the property listed already, I'm afraid you might not sell that quickly.
But I wish you Luck.