It's Your Money: What a ½% Listing Fee Actually Saves You

Most sellers never really look at the commission line until they are sitting at the closing table. By then it is the single largest cost of the sale — usually larger than escrow, title, county transfer tax and repairs combined. It is worth looking at it much earlier than that.

The math nobody walks you through

A listing fee is a percentage of your sale price, so it scales with your equity, not with the amount of work involved. Marketing a $1,500,000 home is not three times the work of marketing a $500,000 home, but at a traditional rate the fee is three times larger.

Here is what a ½% listing fee looks like against a sale price, using our own published examples:

• $750,000 home — ½% is $3,750, so our $5,750 minimum broker fee applies.
• $1,500,000 home — ½% is $7,500.

Run the same two homes at a traditional listing-side rate and the difference is not a rounding error. It is money that stays in your pocket, goes toward your next down payment, or covers the repairs the buyer asked for.

What you should still expect for that fee

A lower fee is only a good deal if the representation behind it is real. With Premier Advantage Real Estate you get personal Broker representation from listing to close, and a full MLS listing that syndicates to Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com and thousands of other sites — the same exposure a buyer would find anywhere else.

There are no upfront fees and no hidden fees. If the home does not sell, there is no broker fee at all.

Ask the question early

Whoever you interview, ask for the listing fee in writing, ask what it includes, and ask what happens if the home does not sell. A broker who is confident in the service will answer all three without hesitating.

It's your money. Keep it.

Minimum Broker Fee $5,750 on homes under $1,150,000. Based on written Listing Agreement. G. Robert Arnold, Broker — CA DRE #00569840.