Real estate agents are paid on straight commission, with very, very few exceptions. That is, we have to sell a property and close the deal to get paid the agreed upon commission, which we dutifully turn over to our company, who gives us our agreed upon portion of the commission. In other words, NO Closings, NO Pay.
That is why it behooves us to keep our home buying clients from straying away. In the Memphis market, companies seldom bind buyers with exclusive buyer representation agreements which require clients to pay if they terminate their relationship with their agent, so the agreements mandated by most companies here are not exclusive, usually allowing buyers to wander off, owing nothing to their agent!
We all have stories of showing buyers 20 houses, only to have them buy a FSBO on their own, or walk into another agent’s open house and write a contract with them. We tell those stories because we didn’t get paid.
For you real estate consumers enrolling in in Real Estate 101, it is OK to dump your agent – just let them know and tell them why, preferably in advance signing a contract with someone else. Remember, if our name is not beside yours as your agent on a sales contract, we don’t get paid.