Do you negotiate your commission?

"You can't sell the house if you don't have the listing," says one of my co-workers. True. But how far do we go? There's 2 different ways to "buy" a listing--a seller's price and our price. Either way, neither really works in the end.

When we buy a listing based upon the sellers price and beat them up down the road, we take a chance of losing the listing anyway because it's overpriced. In this market--not a good idea. In any market, it streams dollars away from your pocket because the longer you advertise, the more you lose.

When we buy a listing based on our price, our motivation with the listing is in question. Not only that, but we also short-change the other sellers who are paying "full-price" just because they have the money to do so. In the interest of full disclosure, I have negotiated my commission farther than I wanted and every time (even when the house sells) it leaves a bad taste. I understand that sticking to your guns doesn't necessarily feed the family, but by short-changing yourself you may be doing even more damage to your self-confidence and future sales in the long run.

I just came out of a listing appointment where the seller wanted to sell at $15,000 above market value, and cut my commission by a percent. Given the fact it was also in a relatively unfavorable location, it wasn't as hard to walk away, but it still stings. Yet walking away is not the worst thing. Chances are, another Realtor may take a crack at it, lose, and they'll remember you when you call them after it's expired anyway.

So here's to holding the line--you have value! Make sure others know it as well!