Originally posted by: ivol07
My wife and I are looking for a home. We found one ourselves that we are very interested in through our own searches online and otherwise. So now we want to get a realtor to allow us to walkthrough the house and make an offer. I contacted a realtor that my wife knows. I let her know that I would like her to split her commission with us 20/80 where we get 20%. It's essentially the same deal I would get if I went with a realtor from ziprealty.com. Seems okay to me, seems to me like no one should get offended or hurt by the proposal. It's only business.
But I'm talking to some friends and they are telling me that I'm being a cheapskate by trying to get some of the realtors commission. To me it seems like this is something that they should be dealing with all the time, especially since ziprealty advertises it as a normal feature of their service. They are saying that the realtor won't fight as hard for me to get a good price as if I were to not have mentioned it at all. But to me I see it as something they have to do to win my business, and if they give me bad service I would just drop them. Again, nothing personal, just business.
So am I a cheapskate?
No. It's perfectly normal to negotiate commission especially when you've already chosen the home. However, do it up front, do not try and wait until you are about to close and try to change the deal then.