How to make money from your real estate agent when BUYING a home

Almost no-one knows this, but in most states it's possible to get a commission rebate from your agent when buying a new home. This means money in your pocket at closing (as much as 2% of the value of your house!!)

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

Things You’ll Need:

• Your wits about you
• The willingness to ask for what is rightfully yours

1. If you live in Alaska, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee or Wyoming then I am sorry.. you are out of luck. Commission rebates are prohibited there by state law.
   
   These laws are there thanks to special interests and you should write your congressman if you want them changed.
2. You need to know the background on how real estate commissions work in most cases.
   
   Agents who help you buy a home often charge no commission. So how do they make money? They split the commission paid by the home seller (usually 50-50) with the sell-side agent.
3. Do the math. On a purchase of a $300,000 home, your agent will typically take home about 3% of the home's value as commissions ($9,000). In some cases the work involves justifies such a fee -- in some cases it does not. If you ask, your agent must disclose to you how much he stands to make on any given home you buy.
4. In all the states except those mentioned above, agents are allowed to give "commission rebates" as a means of enticing customers to work with them. All you have to do is ask and most agents are more than willing to give you a commission rebate to secure your business.
5. Find a realtor who want to work with you and give you a healthy rebate of their commissions at closing. One great place to look is seekingagents.com, a website where agents bid in terms of the commissions they're willing to rebate to you for the right to represent you when you are buying a home.
6. Count the money in your pocket at closing. If your agent agrees to give you a 50% commission rebate, this is the equivalent to receiving at 1.5% discount on the value of your home. Think about that for a second... and all you had to do was ask!