Are your commissions going up or down?

  I am a realtor in Hamilton Ontario Canada and we are lucky to see 6% commission.  Most of the time, real estate agents are only charging 5% and I am starting to see a trend toward 6% on the first $100,000. and 3% on the balance for  Hamilton mls listings.  This was common in the 1980s when an average house price ran between $50,000-$80,000 and when the broker paid for all the expenses such as advertising and business cards.  Now an average home for sale in Hamilton runs around $175,000.-$250,000. and we pay for the majority of our expenses.  Granted, our market has remained pretty active for the last 10 years, but that is not always the case and yet commission reduction is always the way several Hamilton realtors compete to get the listing.   This realtor believes in competition, but perhaps we need to value our services and compete with our marketing skills rather than give away our well deserved income.  How I would like to see the trend start going upward for a change. 

Larger markets seem to have lower average commission rates. In Sarasota, Florida most of our listings are 6% but it seems to be moving upward as I am seeing/getting more and more 7% listings. It is tough to compete on price because someone will usually always do it for less than you.

What's annoying most of us buyers' agents here in Tampa is the co-broke fee. It's usually 3% but here in Tampa it's usually 3% - $250. The minus $250 is a cheap shot at getting an extra $250 from the buyers agent and calling it an "MLS" fee. MLS don't charge us to list a property to the MLS. It's a bogus fee started by an agent or a brokerage several years ago and it's really annoying.

I have seen that before in our MLS system too. What a bunch of crap. I have never written an offer on any of the listings but if I did I would try to negotiate it away and write it in my offer.

Hey Marc - seeing pretty much the same here except for short sales.  They are the biggest headache.  Commissions are subject to lender approval, etc.  which I think is bs, since the lender(s) is/are a 3rd party, not the owner of the property and are interfering with a contractual agreement that a listing agent has with the owner.  Why they are permitted to do this is beyond me, but, I think if enough agents stood up to them and said no, this might change. Not to mention that they take several months to respond with an answer, presumably in anticipation of a bail out that will be less of a profit-loss. Unfortunately, with the amount of short sale properties, we are forced to show them, so if we sell a short sale we have no idea if we will get paid and if so, how much?