Sales Commission
Definition of "Sales commission"
Broadly speaking, a commission is a remuneration a person receives after acting on someone else’s behalf.
In the real estate world, you’ll usually hear the term “sales commission”, which is the remuneration a real estate broker and/or agent earns in regards for his/her service representing the home seller (or the home buyer) in a house buying/selling transaction.
Well… most of the times, at least.
Sorry if you’re looking for easy answers; the real estate market is complex - that’s why an agent expertise is something you should not turn your back to.
Sometimes agents do earn money regardless of a house being sold: Buyer’s agents, for instance, might earn a real estate sales commission even if the prospective home buyer doesn’t end up buying a house. Think about it: the buyer’s agent drove the client around showing houses on the weekend, shared his/her educated knowledge regarding the real estate market… that comes at a cost and it wouldn’t be right if the agent gets nothing out of it should the client decide it’s not the right time to buy a house.
And there are some times when the agent gets no real estate commission at all! Yup; even if the house is sold! If an agent entered an Open Listing or an Exclusive Agency Listing but did not manage to bring the final offer to the table, then the real estate commission will go to the agent who brought it or to the homeowner.
The standard real estate sales commission is 5% to 6% of the final sales price and the listing agent splits it evenly with the buyer’s agent.
Real Estate Tips:
Check our Glossary Terms for more real estate lingo!
And find an agent to help you with the complex task of buying or selling a house!
Popular Real Estate Terms
Document between two or more parties indicating a need to take or not take a previous action taking place. For example, a bank may commit to make a loan dependent on a satisfactory credit ...
The direction in which a community is growing. Directional growth is measured over time, and its path strongly influences current and future market values of those properties clearly in ...
The Exclusive Right to Sell Listing is a type of Listing where the Listing Broker/Agent wins his/her commission even if he/she wasn’t directly responsible for the sale.Let’s ...
Major city in a metropolitan area. ...
What does viz. mean? The meaning of viz. derives from the Latin word videlicet which is translated into English as namely, that is, which is, as follows. You may encounter it in legal ...
Claude in a contract, title, or mortgage that is subject to being annulled, repealed, or revoked upon the satisfaction of a claim or completion of a future event. ...
Gradual deterioration of land due to nature such as because of floods, hurricanes and storms. Gradual decline in the value of real estate because of poor market and economic conditions. ...
Adobe construction is one of the oldest types of construction that has been used in the Americas, ancient Egypt, and the Middle East to build long-lasting structures that can be seen even ...
A large enclosed shopping mall having several national and regional retails stores acting as anchor tenants. The enclosed floor area of regional shopping centers ranges between 250,000 ...
Have a question or comment?
We're here to help.