General Questions
- Buyer Questions
- How do I get a rebate when I buy a house in Texas?
- Is the Rebate always 2%?
- Our fee is always a minimum of $1500 or 1% of the transaction, whichever is greater. So for homes selling for under $150,000, the rebate will be less. When less than 3% is offered as a commission, the rebate would be less accordingly. The commission is often 2.5% for bank owned properties and short sales, so in those instances the rebate would be 1.5%. The terms of the rebate are spelled out in our Buyer Representation Agreement.
- Are home buyer rebates a scam?
- If we deal directly with the listing agent, wouldn’t they be willing to give us 2%?
- 99% of the time, the buyer’s agent’s share of the commission is 3%. If you buy a house directly through the listing agent, all of that 3% will go into their pocket, along with the other 3% they are probably getting for listing the property (total of 6%). Even if you deal directly with the seller, the standard 6% listing contract states the listing agent still gets the full commission. No discounts for the seller finding the buyer, even if the buyer is his brother and the agent did absolutely nothing other than sign the listing agreement. To see the terms of 99% of all listing agreements, see the standard Exclusive Right to Sell Listing Agreement. The other factor is that almost all the big brokers don’t allow their agents to do the kind of discounting we do. And even if they were allowed, it still wouldn’t work because after the agent split the 3% with their broker, there wouldn’t even be enough left to give you 2% anyway, even if they agreed to work for free! For a better understanding about how commissions are shared between brokers and agents.
- Can we get the rebate with one of your listings?
- Almost all of our listings provide that the sellers can avoid any commissions if they find a buyer on their own. As a service to our sellers, we refer buyer inquiries directly to the sellers if the buyer does not have an agent. If they make a deal, we don’t charge any commission. This allows the sellers to drop their price by the amount of what the commission would have been. The result is that you don’t get a rebate from us, but will very likely get at least that amount of a price reduction from the seller.