You want to get a great price for your home. A commissioned agent who’s earning a percentage of the selling price wants to make a lot of money, so they want a great price for your home as well. However, there are plenty of situations where a higher selling price is actually doing them more good than it’s doing you.

Real Estate Agents Make Bank off Your Sale

First of all, relative to the work that they put in a real estate agent makes an incredible amount of money. They’re snagging that steep percentage of your sale price for work that more and more people are doing on their own.

A higher selling price means that you get more money, but it also means that you have to give more of it up to them. What happens when they chase a higher commission through hard sell tactics and not through attracting wealthier buyers?

Driving up the Selling Price Sounds Good at First

A higher selling price sounds good, but the reality is that most people have a narrow window in which they can sell their house and be alright. If you’re moving, you don’t want to be stuck paying off two mortgages. For some people, securing a loan for another house isn’t even possible until they have the money coming in from the sale of their first house. There are all kinds of situations where a moderate increase in the selling price isn’t worth waiting longer to get the money. Having your house on the market an extra 3 months so you can earn an extra $5,000 isn’t going to settle well with many people.

However, a real estate agent doesn’t have to worry about how their choice is going to affect you. If they can keep low buyers away they could earn a lot more from the increased price. Now, most real estate agents aren’t going to go in looking to drive buyers away. However, an uncompromising bargaining position or too much of a hard sell tactic can be a huge turn off for a buyer. They could lose the sale through trying to force the higher price, forcing you to wait longer for someone who’s going to buy into it.

Great Money for Not Much Work

It’s mentioned above that more and more people take doing the work of a real estate agent on their own. If you have access to a flat fee MLS agent in your area you have access to the Multi Listing Service; how the word about new properties spreads amongst real estate buyers (and agents) in the know. It’s the best way to attract a large following for your house quickly, but it’s not the only way. There’s a lot more you should be doing.

Today, most people don’t need an agent to put together an online listing. You can have your house up on real estate websites and Facebook in an hour with a good list of features, the asking price, and some decent curb side pictures.

From there, it’s just time to schedule all the viewings and make sure that your house stays in tip top shape to impress. Again, unless you work outrageous hours where no one could meet you, you don’t need a real estate agent to show someone around your home.

With all the effort put into listing, showing, and selling, don’t you think that you should keep that big percentage payment for yourself?