You are right.I did the same thing.By reducing the commission to 5% I received my minimum sale price.There were two Brokers involved (listing & selling brokers).At first the selling broker balked,and then decided that A Bird in The Hand is Worth Two In The Bush. The Agents would have you think that 6% Comm. is written in stone,but it is not.They could sell for 1% Comm.

I don't think it is about honesty at all. The listing contract states a price for the house and a commission for the broker. If the agent asks you to accept a lower price than the price stated in the listing agreement, then there is nothing wrong with asking the agent to lower the commission. I don't consider that to be dishonest. It is certainly not a breach of the contract.

Is it safe to assume that the agents in your examples were not Villages reps?
Is it also safe to assume that the homes in your examples were not in TV?

My example was for my previous house in Virginia. But, I would not hesitate to discuss commission rates with Villages reps or any other real estate agent when selling a pre-owned house in The Villages.

All homes in The Villages are sought after these days. If your home is clean, and well presented, you should be able to sell it yourself quickly if you are reasonable about the asking price and keep in mind WHERE it is, view or lack of it and size.

There are closing lawyers to help you close for less than a thousand dollars.

Yes & Yes

When I sold real estate in Hernando County in the late 80's I worked at ERA Hedick Realty in Spring Hill, our advertised commission rate was 4.8%. We were the number 1 listing broker in the county with usually about 250 listings on the board. Prudential, Century 21 and Remax were the next largest and they all showed our homes. If we sold a home listed by another broker, we still split their 6% commission. At this time the average home sales price in Hernando County was $66,000. A new masonry home with a birdcage pool with 3 BR 2 BA and 2 car garage was about $100K - $115K.so you can see the cost of living was much lower 30 years ago on the Gulf coast of Florida north of Clearwater.

My specialty was vacant land, what you would call residential lots, for which we charged the going rate of 10% commission. I loved vacant land, no keys, no inside photos, no viewing appointments and usually I carried a few signs in my trunk which I just stuck on the lot, homes required a large ERA sign post that had to be installed with a post-hole digger by someone else.

You could show clients many lots in one day, however in most cases buyers would just see your sign themselves and called and bought the land after getting the details. My broker paid for 500 mailings per month, so every month I would send out 500 letters to owners of vacant land who had an out of state address. I would just say, would you like a market analysis of your property. I would get about 40 replies every month and about 20 listings a month from those.

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Well, well, we’ll. Looked at new home in monarch grove. The home cost is 1/2 of the sale price of my current home. Read that sentence again. Sounds good, but, but ,but, The annual tax on that 1/2 price new home would be twice, yes 2 times the current annual tax on my current home. Really, yes really. I’m still dizzy from that, and confused why I would even consider moving. I could replace every appliances, my entire heating/air unit and even my roof for less than the tax increase foe ten years. Plus, I would give up my perfect location for a questionable location near a Fenny. WOW, what was I thinking. I love my house and I will stay right here.

Sorry,I made a mistake.I negotiated a 4% commission not 5%I don't feel it was Dishonest,Unethical,or lacked Integrity. It's called negotiating.An agent doesn't have a problem asking a client to lower the price after they signed a contract with the seller. I didn't think that we were allowed to attack Posters on this site.In your Convoluted post you called the OP Despicable for asking a simple question.

I don't understand your math.

Attached is a comparison of real estate taxes in TV. Where do you come up with "The annual tax on that 1/2 price new home would be twice, yes 2 times the current annual tax on my current home."?

The lowest millage rate is in unincorporated Sumter County -- 12.4001. The highest is in Lake County, Pine Hills & Pine Ridge -- 17.9898.

My figure comes from a combination of adding wildwood city tax, that I don’t pay now, and the lower tax I have for my current home of 10 years that has enjoyed lower tax increases due to the limited increase allowed in Sumter county. It is complicated but as explained to me, if I bought my current home at today’s value, my tax would go up by approx 30%. Add that to the wildwood city tax and my annual tax would double. :shocked::shocked:

That doesn't sound right. Are you SURE????

Nope...cannot fathom this being true. I think you have miscalculated something.

I really enjoy watching prices and costs around The Villages.

Let me say it in a way that everyone can’t get it.

My current annual tax bill is $2700.
My current home market value is $400,000.00.

To buy a new home with market value of $300,000.00 within the Wildwood City Tax zone, the annual tax would be $4800.
So, if I bought a home valued 100K less than my current home, my tax bill would still go up $2100.

Let me add a suggestion. Before making up your own mind, look at your last tax bill, then ask an agent what the annual tax would be for that home in wildwood city tax zone. In my case if I just replaced my home in that zone, I would go from $2700 to $6400. A fair share of that increase is because my tax’s are based on my being in Sumter county for ten years.

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Keep in mind that the priority of the Villages Realty is to sell new homes, used homes are not! Some Village Really people will show your home and then tell the prospective buyer that they can get newer home for blah, blah, blah!