What to Give our Broker?
We have been working closely with a broker who has been extremely helpful with helping us find a home. We are currently in contract on a townhouse – but there’s a catch: the seller’s agent does not co-broke. Therefore, all the hard work our broker has done on our behalf is all for naught. We…
We have been working closely with a broker who has been extremely helpful with helping us find a home. We are currently in contract on a townhouse – but there’s a catch: the seller’s agent does not co-broke. Therefore, all the hard work our broker has done on our behalf is all for naught. We want to give him some money, but have no idea what would be appropriate. Any advice is appreciated!
REBNY brokers are only required to co-broke with REBNY brokers and MLS brokers are only required to co-broke with MLS brokers. Especialy for the lower priced properties both will do the most that they can to NOT co-broke and keep the entire commission for themselves. At the expense of their sellers: ie I recently made a cash offer for a house that was asking 1.1 in Fort Greene through my Broker. She e-mailed, phoned it in and sent it certified mail to the MLS broker. No response. The title passed at $750,000 the listing broker made more selling it at $750,000 keeping the whole commission (4%) to themselves than if they had co-broked it for my offer of 1.1.
This is what our State Assembly man should be working on rather than Brokers neighborhood boundaries! Listing brokers for direct deals should get one fee and for a co-broke the commission is higher, the buyer pays all the commissions in the price anyway, but both buyer and seller have full disclosure of commissions.
The listing broker is under no obligation to co-broke if it is not his/her exclusive, and as the others have said their is probably a 2-3% commission anyway.
The best gift for a broker is referrals. If the broker helped you get this particular house, there is no reason why you can’t give him a commission on your end.
I wouldn’t call this a broker getting burned exactly. Broker shows potential buyers what they can show them. If what buyer decided to buy is something broker couldn’t show them, then the deal just didn’t work out. Which is why I worked with many brokers when looking. Buyers didn’t make the current crazy system, which is highly inefficient from a buyer’s point of view and wastes buyers’ time….brokers did.
The majority of Mom & Pop brokers do not co-broke in Brooklyn, Manhattan is a different ball game. This is mainly because they have negotiated a lower fee. 2-4% is typical to under cut the big brokers even though the level of service suffers and exposure is much less, you get what you pay for. That said, a nice gift for your broker would suffice. Brokers get burned in Brooklyn by buyers all the time, it happens. Just part of the game.
Some brokers do work for a fixed fee, and that would be more than appropriate:
http://www.urbandigs.com/2011/04/introducing_flat_fee_buyer_con.html
These are the perils of being a buyers broker in Brooklyn, and why i suspect many buyers brokers do minimal footwork – – as getting paid on contingency really means “maybe if you’re lucky” you’ll get paid on contingency.
I’d suggest a very nice gift basket (Dean and Deluca) and invite them over for your housewarming party to meet any new potential buyers so they can tell their friends what a great job your broker did, and they tell their friends, and so on…
Anything more than that would be above and beyond the call of duty, though not unheard of.
If you are set on money… Commission of 3% of the purchase price. I’m sure he’d appreciate that. Anything less would be insulting.
That’s the drawback of not having a full MLS in place in Brooklyn. It really sucks. Your broker should not accept money. You can give a gift to show your appreciation.
Hey, why not give a mention to your agent here and out the bastard who refused to co-broke?
I would wonder more about the seller’s agent and why ‘no co-broke’ as it is usually appropriate business- wise if your agent truly helped you get to contract.
If they simply let you know about the listing, and were aware that they could not co-broke early on, then a small gift certificate to a restaurant or something of that nature would be nice, I would think.
It never hurts to be nice 😉
Agree…best way to show appreciation is to send business his way.