A listing that just closed escrow had this in the confidential remarks:

Seller will pay 6% commission if property is sold at $735,000 or higher; seller will pay 5% if property is sold for less than $735,000 – commission to be split 50/50 between listing and selling brokers.

In this case, the home sold for $715,000, but the agents can still say they made a decent living – and the seller can say he got a break on the commission for accepting a lower price (the list price was $735,000).

I love the idea of our pay being performance-based.

If listing agents promise to deliver a certain price, and they don’t, then sharing the pain with the seller would be a fair proposition.

Likewise, if a seller wanted to incentivize agents to sell the house for retail (or retail-plus), then the paying of an additional reward, or bounty, could make a difference.

The new purchase contract we were discussing?  Yep, the buyer-agent’s commission is still not disclosed anywhere – buyers will never know if their agent got a bonus.

P.S. There is a category on our MLS to specify ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a variable commission, which serves as an alert to the buyer-agents that the listing agent has an incentive plan, and/or a dual-agency discount.