If agents reach out to him about the potential for seller concessions or buyer broker compensation on a property, Saphire is planning on telling them that it is up to the seller to convey their willingness to pay a commission and that HomeZu will not participate in any commission negotiations. So far, he says he has not been inundated by calls asking about commissions, which he considers a good sign.
Harvey is embracing a different strategy and publishing any offers of buyer broker compensation sellers are willing to offer on his firm’s website, a permitted carve-out under the settlement terms.
“Our solution is that we are putting all of our listings on our website with the commission information, which we previously didn’t have on the website,” Harvey said.
Harvey said he is also noting that the commission offers are subject to change, in case the seller decides to go a different route.
Like Saphire, Harvey would like to see an end to discussions of buyer broker commissions. Ideally, Harvey said, buyers would simply ask for seller concessions if they wish to use the money to pay for their own agent’s services.
“There should really be no talk of commissions,” Harvey said. “I think that is the best practice that agents can have and I’m hoping that is the way the industry moves, and that seems like where quite a few players are going.”
For Cabellero, who works solely with production home builders and closed 7,012 transaction sides in 2023, according to RealTrends data, he decided the best way to communicate offers of buyer broker commissions was through an automated system.
“Builders can put that information on their website if they want or, since we know what the commission they are offering is, we have set up a process where agents can call us directly and we can tell them what the commission is, which is something we are doing in addition to what we have done before,” Cabellero, who is brokered by HomesUSA.com, Inc., said.
As of early August, he had over 3,200 listings and he “couldn’t even begin to help all the agents who might potentially call,” which led to the decision to create an automated system to handle inquiries from agents.
Cabellero isn’t the only one relying on automation to help him navigate some of the chaos that is expected to ensue. Harvey’s firm, which he refers to as a “technology company at its core,” has built out a system to help him and his staff navigate the various regulations in the 48 states and roughly 400 MLSs he operates in.
“If you come to our system, you put in the address of the property you want to list then our system will know what area you are located in and what local documents and forms are required and prompt you to fill those out,” Harvey said.
Saphire, who operates in Texas, Florida, Virginia and the New England region, has not built out any automations, but he has spreadsheets to track when MLSs are changing rules, what those rules are, and which forms he may need to use.
Although the agents said they are getting used to the fairly used to the confusion, the patchworked rollout of these business practice changes nationwide has not made for the smoothest of transitions. But ultimately, they believe these changes will be for the best, especially for their limited services business models.
“I do think more people are going to find us. Consumers have always had options, but I think now consumers are going to be more aware of their options and that is a food thing for all of us,” Harvey said. “I think that it would be responsible for us as a profession and individual professionals to understand those options to that we can best inform consumers about who we are, how we differ and guide them on what is the best for them. I spoke with a consumer a week ago and they were really happy with our customer service, but they wanted to cancel their contract with us because they decided they were not up for taking on so much of the responsibility for the transaction and that is OK.”
