Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
See Post No. 22. This is not semantics at all. There is no buyer agent in the legal sense, and the only legally binding contract that exists is between the broker and the seller. The buyer has no legal recourse, and is never responsible to pay a commission.
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They are always responsible to pay the commission. The cost of the commission is built into the sales price, therefore it is always the buyer who ends up paying it.
If the homeowner needs to clear $100,000, and their agent requires a 5% commission, then the homeowner needs to get a minimum $105,000 sales price. The buyer pays that $105,000 - the homeowner keeps the $100k and the extra $5k goes into the agent's pocket. OR it gets split between the agent and the buyer's agent, if they have one.
The decision on who gets the $5000 is between the listing agent and the buyer's agent, if there is one. They duke it out amongst themselves, but it's the buyer who's footing the bill only because it's built into the price they pay for the privilege of buying that house.