Report: Real estate agents willing to cut commission

When it comes to residential real estate these days, it seems everything is subject to negotiation.

That includes the real estate broker's cut on the deal, according to a report issued Monday by Consumer Reports. Based on a recent survey of home sellers, 46 percent of people trying to sell their homes through agents tried to negotiate a lower commission rate. Of those home sellers, 71 percent succeeded in getting the real estate agent to take less.

Haggling, the nonprofit Consumers Union publication noted, didn't mean home sellers were getting less from their agents or were less satisfied with the outcome. Sellers who paid commission rates of 3 percent or lower were just as satisfied with their broker's performance as those who paid 6 percent or more, the report noted.

Despite the nationwide slump in residential real estate sales, 86 percent of Consumer Reports' readers who put their homes on the market made a sale, while only 8 percent gave up and took their homes off the market.

Agents with large brokerage firms scored just as well as independent brokers when it came to customer satisfaction, but the magazine recommends home sellers base their choice of agents on factors that include personal recommendations.

The magazine recommends home sellers price their homes realistically, and drop their asking price between 4 percent to 6 percent if they don't receive an offer within four to six weeks.

The Washington (D.C.) Business Journal is a sister publication of The Business Journal Serving Greater Milwaukee.