On its face, a REALTOR doesn’t cost anything. It is free to sign with a REALTOR or an agent. However, the true REALTOR cost will come once you close on a house. And here, the real estate agent cost is actually astoundingly high for the time they spend. The custom for years has been 3% of the sale price of the home for each agent, buyer’s and seller’s. In Denver, where the median home price is now more than $500,000, each real estate agents’ cost would be $15,000. This can often seem like a small amount compared to the price of the home and easily overlooked at signing, but it’s an obscene amount to ask, in our humble opinion.
TRELORA has sold more than 3500 homes since 2011. We average 37 hours per transaction, and we have a 5-star rating. Even if other REALTORs are as good as we are, charging $15,000 for 37 hours of work is $405/hour. That’s astronaut money to sell a house.
Remember that how much a REALTOR costs is up to you. Certainly, it is free to sign with anyone, and they are going to suggest that you compensate them based on a percentage of the home’s price, just remember that you are in the driver’s seat and ultimately control how much your real estate agent costs.