I have to disagree strongly with Anthony Longo - Inman Contributor

Anthony Longo, recently as a guest contributor to an Inman piece called 6 percent is dead wrote the following...

"But looking at it in reverse, as a buyer, the buyer's agent makes LESS commission for negotiating the lowest possible price for you. This is not in line. It doesn't make much sense. Actually, it does not make sense at all.

It is completely backwards, in my opinion. If you want to pay a buyer's agent on a percentage-based commission, a reverse algorithm would be most warranted for them to work their tail off to get you the lowest possible price, right? The way it exists now is that a buyer's agent makes less money when they do a BETTER job at negotiating for you."

That could possibly be one of the most black and white statements I have ever read. We're talking about very little difference in commission amount. It also depends on what price range we are talking about here but even so it's all relative. If your the kind of agent that will worry about a couple hundred dollars in commission you don't deserve to have a license. Maybe it's a few thousand dollars on a multi-million dollar deal. If you stand to make $50K in commission and you're going to worry about 3 or 4 grand...you'll be found out for what you are.

He also neglected to mention that many buyer's agents have lowered their commissions in order to help an offer look more appealing or to get a deal done that would otherwise have fallen apart. I can't think of one time a listing agent I was working in conjunction with was willing to lower their commission to help their seller.

Fee based real estate services are going to cause problems. Problem #1 - Quality of service will decline.

If you have an opinion please post it. Don't be afraid to disagree with me...

Brian Thomas Smith - Nashville Realtor