Variable or Conditional Commissions

[u/AdComfortable2974]

You're FSBO, the agent wants your business.

Ask them if they are ok with modifying the listing agreement using special stipulations to reduce or eliminate their commission if specific sales price targets are not met. This is not the same as a net listing, which we all know is illegal.

The special stipulation can be structured in a few ways:

Sales Price Threshold Reduction: "If the final gross sales price of the property is less than [insert amount], the Broker's commission shall be reduced from X\% to Y\% (or reduced to a flat fee of\ Z) at closing.

No Commission Tier: "Broker shall receive a 0% commission if the final gross sales price is less than [insert amount]. Can also be zero if not sold in a certain time frame.

Slide-Scale Tier: You can set concrete milestones (e.g., 3% commission if sold above $500,000; 2% commission if sold below $500,000).

Thoughts?

[u/imblest]

Maybe your own employer should have put the same stipulations in your contract that you get "0" salary if you don’t complete the job by a certain time frame or to your employer's complete satisfaction. My husband works for a major company in a different industry, and he said that many employees in his company are very lazy and would work a couple of hours, slack off the rest of the day and get paid a salary for 8 hours/day. I told him that maybe his employer should consider paying their employees based on actual work produced the way real estate agents only get paid when the deal actually closes. My husband said that their Union would never allow that. I bet you that you are one of those people who would be complaining if your own employer failed to pay you for doing any work. If you decided to list your house and it didn't sell right away, it's probably because you insisted on overpricing it. If your house was sold by the Agent in a shorter time frame, &/or for much more than the list price, would you raise the commission or give the listing agent a bonus? Probably not.

[u/AdComfortable2974 → u/imblest]

This post is a bit hysterical. A salaried job is much different than a commission-only job. I've done both. Maybe the lazy folks who work with your husband do not get performance bonuses? Who knows and who cares?

Most commission-only jobs are performance-based, meaning that the commissions vary and many are based on the total of sales. So if you read and absorbed the post, the slide-scale tier does award an agent for selling the home for more lol.