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My husband and I have put a bid in on a house and the seller is considering it. In the meantime, we are trying to figure out ways to cut costs on the transaction should it go through. One way, of course, would be if our realtor would agree to reduce his commission, which is 5%. Our house isn’t on the market yet, so we have no idea how much work he will have to do to sell it but it just seems like an awful lot of money (my yearly salary!) to hand over. Has anyone had any success negotiating commissions? Is it something that can be done in this down market, or do realtors tend not to budge? Any advice or information would be appreciated.