VLS and MLS Agent commission?
 

I'm coming down to buy and will have both agents looking for me.

Are they still getting paid from the seller commission and not from me the buyer?

Thanks

Yes. Unless you arrange to hire a buyer's agent, the agents who show you houses will be representing the seller and be paid by the seller.

You may be able to find a MLS buyer's agent. Most of the MLS agents I have used over the past 30+ years to purchase homes have represented me as buyer's agent. They were named as buyer's agent in the purchase agreement and were paid from the proceeds of the sale which is customary. Too, I have had separate exclusive and nonexclusive buyer's agent agreements in writing with a few. The one exception was when I bought a house through the listing agent in a very hot market in Newport Beach, CA back in 1996.

Recently I have observed agents moving toward being transactional agents and even non-agents as with a couple of sales of commercial properties I sold in 2022 and 2023. I do not know if Florida residential agents are trending that way or not.

Postings of the relevant Florida real estate agency statute is available in past TOTV threads.

I do not know how the recent NAR settlement has/is affecting how commissions are paid. I imagine it will be an evolving situation.

I haven't a clue about how VLS agents operate.

There was a recent settlement on a class action case involving real estate commissions.

Home buyers to be spared automatic broker commissions under new $418 million settlement – NBC New York

Does anyone know if commissions have changed in the Villages?

Note that to be a transactional agent, the agent must get written consent from the seller under Florida law:

CONSENT TO TRANSITION TO
TRANSACTION BROKER

FLORIDA LAW ALLOWS REAL ESTATE LICENSEES WHO REPRESENT A BUYER OR SELLER AS A SINGLE AGENT TO CHANGE FROM A SINGLE AGENT RELATIONSHIP TO A TRANSACTION BROKERAGE RELATIONSHIP IN ORDER FOR THE LICENSEE TO ASSIST BOTH PARTIES IN A REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION BY PROVIDING A LIMITED FORM OF REPRESENTATION TO BOTH THE BUYER AND THE SELLER. THIS CHANGE IN RELATIONSHIP CANNOT OCCUR WITHOUT YOUR PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT.

As a seller, I would never allow an agent to be a transactional agent until all contingencies in the sales contract were satisfied. Also, I would never allow a buyer's agent to receive any of the commission paid by me at closing. If I am paying a sales commission, then I want exclusive representation by any agent who shows my house.

A few things:

MLS agents are not permitted to show VLS-listed properties. The Villages has an exclusive contract, and sellers sign the contract with the VLS to maintain exclusivity. MLS agents get no commission if the property is sold via Properties of The Villages.

In turn, Properties of The Villages get no commission if they represent the BUYER in a sale of an MLS-listed home. Properties of the Villages reps/agents may arrange for showings of MLS-listed homes, but they may not perform the showing. The MLS agent must be in attendance, the VLS agent doesn't get a key or passcode for the key-box.

VLS agents are -employees- of Properties of The Villages, and do get paid, no matter which home they're helping a buyer buy. But they don't get commissions on properties that Properties of The Villages don't sell.

I’ve bought 6 homes in villages the first 5 were new so I was only using my vllages agent , the last was preowned so. Had both a realtor company and my villages agent. It went very well and there as no hard feelings when I bought from an outside realtor

As are most MLS agents VLS agents may be independent contractors, not employees. I am not sure either way.

I found this when searching to discover whether VLS agents are independent contractors or employees. I do not know if he is correct.

https://www.thevillagesproperties.co...ge=0002753763&

It seems to me that some agents want to have it both ways. They want to represent a buyer, but they want to be paid by the seller. If that is ever mandated, I would just list the house myself and offer a smaller commission to the agent who brings me a buyer. And, I don't need a "transaction" agent. I need an agent who works for me and is a good salesperson.

NOTE: as a buyer, you won't see a sales commission cost on your side (eg MLS agent 6%)....however, as a buyer, you will indeed be out of pocket for a number of costs (eg appraisal, taxes, loan costs, prepaid interest), so just be prepared and you'll be presented with a disclosure from the selling agent.

This is true today. This may not be true 3 months from now.

I was told changes due to the NAR lawsuit will begin in July. Until then, commissions owed the buyer's agent will still be paid from the seller's proceeds.

To me this seems to be much ado about nothing. I was a Realtor in NE for 41 years and when I worked with buyers, without exception I was paid by sellers. When I represented the sellers I negotiated on behalf of the sellers. When I sold my own listing I represented both parties. I am confused as I honestly do not ever remember there being a conflict.

I know other states are different, but, in Florida, it is illegal to represent both the buyer and the seller as an agent. You can be a transaction agent, but only if you have the written consent of the seller. If you don't have consent, you can only represent one party.

When you represented both parties, did you try to get the lowest price or the highest price?

Incorrect Information
 

Your information is totally incorrect. In the state of Florida the way it stands right now, most broker’s run as a transaction broker with nothing needing to be signed. We are definitely allowed to sell our own listings. We do not have dual agency in Florida. We have transaction broker agency. If we want to represent one party exclusively then we do have to get an agreement signed.

Without exception my goal was to find a price and terms that were satisfactory to both parties. I honestly do not ever recall a "bad" experience.

This is from the 2023 Florida Statue 475.278 (note the last sentence):

CONSENT TO TRANSITION TO
TRANSACTION BROKER

FLORIDA LAW ALLOWS REAL ESTATE LICENSEES WHO REPRESENT A BUYER OR SELLER AS A SINGLE AGENT TO CHANGE FROM A SINGLE AGENT RELATIONSHIP TO A TRANSACTION BROKERAGE RELATIONSHIP IN ORDER FOR THE LICENSEE TO ASSIST BOTH PARTIES IN A REAL ESTATE TRANSACTION BY PROVIDING A LIMITED FORM OF REPRESENTATION TO BOTH THE BUYER AND THE SELLER. THIS CHANGE IN RELATIONSHIP CANNOT OCCUR WITHOUT YOUR PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT.

Has this law changed?

So, if I list my house for $400K with a 6 percent commission, you will represent both the buyer and the seller to get a "satisfactory" price, and then expect me, the seller, to pay you $24,000? There is no way I would ever agree to that. I expect the agent to represent me in negotiations and to get the highest reasonable price. I'm glad that Florida law doesn't allow that. If they did, I would sell my own house.

Actual Facts on Commissions
 

As usual the Villages gets both sides of the transaction for themselves!

Homebuyers: Here's What the NAR Settlement Means for You

here is the conflict which you don't present:

A transactional broker want to get a commission to pay your bills, so your motivation is a completed transaction, regardless of differences in price. Your position is starting point $0 for no transaction or $XX,xxx for a completed transaction, so the quicker the sale, the quicker you can move on. .

The Seller's motivation is the highest price, so that people can pay higher taxes
The buyer's motivation is the lowest price, so that the mortgage payment is the lowest possible for 20-30 years. .

So the outcome for the seller or buyer is listing price vs 0-3% higher or lower. . depending upon viewpoint, a much smaller difference from their starting point.
From your position, 6% commission on 3% difference is immaterial between $0 and $paid commission.

Using your motivation, you can easily talk both parties to a mid price, so that you can get paid sooner, without much difference in your payment, yet the goals of neither party were satisfied.

There have been several behavioral finance / economic studies showing that a transactional agent's motivation was to get a transaction, not to get the best for both the buyer and seller. I have seen this in action:

independent appraisal of house ahead of time: $150,000
Listing agent appraisal: $175,000
After 30 days, Listing agent is frantic about lowering the price to get a sale, she had to get the sale done after 30 days!
Final Sale price: $149,000

Could the seller have gotten $175,000? doubtful, but 30 days is a very short period of time to assume that even a majority of buyers have been notified and could arrange to have a showing. Daily life gets in the way.

So, never, ever, tell a broker when selling that you have a time frame to sell, never say nor type that you are a motivated seller. . . golden words to a transactional broker who just wants to the get the sale done to get paid with little impact on the final commission.

That's the conflict which underlies the transactional broker versus independent agents.

former but still finance guy

I found a contract document a while back for "Villages Sales Representative"

This is 2018. Here is the section on VLS commissions