Our kids are off to college and we would be downsizing from our kinda dream house to our "good enough" house in order to free up $ for college and medical school tuition. We dont have to move but will do so if we can save enough money to make it worth while. If we dont get a good enough price on our house it wont make sense to sell. If get get an offer that is close to our bottom line I might go to the realtors and the builder of our next home and tell them the situation and see if they want to lower their profit margins in order to have the deal go through. I understand if they so "no" but it never hurts to ask.

Let us know if it works. It would be good to know if it does.

Good luck!

I used the same realtor to purchase two homes and sell one. I got a reduced commission percentage on the one I sold.

Two years ago my daughter bought a house and two days before settlement, the sellers announced they could not settle because they were $4000. short of their share of settlement costs. They were selling because of divorce and were cash poor.

Two realtors involved each gave $2000. so settlement could happen. They both said only time they had ever heard of sellers not having enough money to settle.

If commission is 6% two agents each get 3%. Then they split that with the brokers they work for. So likely a 1.5 % discount is the most you would get and that is if they do it for free. Photographer, flyers, open house food.... there are some expenses.

Try to get a better deal with the builder if that is the only way to justify you making a move. As they are the only ones who really benefit from you. The agents have other houses they can show and make 3%.

You could try FSBO. If it goes smooth then could it VERY worthwhile. However if it is a roller coaster like ours then you will wish you had an agent.

Thanks for all the thoughtful comments. We have tried FSBO. That was in a very hot market and it didn't work for us. People who say our house while FSBO didn't come back until it was listed with an agent.

I realize that the realtors have some substantial fixed costs that they need to recoup. Ours has spent some money on a photographer (twice), drone videographer, stager, glossy hand outs and all the on-line web sites.

I agree that getting a discount from the builder would be tough to police since many decisions have not been made and there would be dozens of places where he could make that money back without our knowing it.

If we could find an existing house that we were happy with we could accept a low offer on our home if we could find an existing one at a comparable discount. But we want what we want and have not found a lot of existing homes that meet our needs.

I'd say price the old house in line with comparables so that it will sell and then work with the builder to keep the new house within budget. I would hope 1% or 2% of sales price wouldn't make or break your ability to proceed with the new house.

Marketing is only a part of what agents must do for their commission. After the house goes under contract, they must schedule repair work, keep up with requirements, get receipts to the lender, and possibly argue over details at the walkthrough. Sometimes money gets escrowed for delayed work, so they have to follow up even after closing. Their time isn't free. The gas in their car isn't free. Every hour they spend on your deal is an hour they could have spent on an easier deal. Their industry has set their commission rate at a fair compensation for the work.

For busy, established agents, especially during summer selling season, no sale would actually be better than a discounted sale, because then they can write you off and move on to greener grass.

On a house we recently bought, the sellers turned out to be difficult. Their agent got to the point that the time/money/headache she spent on them was beyond her commission. When we showed up at walkthrough and the house was a mess, she told us straight out that she did not care if we bought the house or not.

TLDR: the threat of a lost sale is not enough to sway every agent.

Your best option is to choose a new house within budget. If you can't make it happen this summer, don't sell this summer.

6% of the list price on my house is about $40K. So far nobody has invested enough in marketing or spent enough hours to make that $40K feel like money well spent. But it is what it is. I could have done FSBO or a discount broker. My wife has an expired realtor's license so we could have renewed that and she could have represented us. I'm not knocking realtors. I am just trying to do what's best for my family which is exactly what everybody else in the transaction is doing.

As others have noted, 6% is not carved in stone. Some listing only type places might be 3.5 or 4.5%. This would probably save you more than squeezing the Realtors at closing.

The only concession that I have personally been a part of was a seller that didn't have enough cash to make the required repairs. It was a divorce sale. We were the buyers.

There were termites in the one of the columns of the porch. The law in that state required the seller's to perform the repairs and treat in order to get a termite certificate. The seller's agent ended up fronting the money for the repair. Her husband, a contractor did the labor. They billed for it at closing. IMO, they were lucky to get the money given the poor behavior of the sellers.

The kinds of concessions the original poster is considering are uncommon. But, you don't have to sell your house for less than you want. Nor, do you have to pay more for the new home than you want to spend. The rub is you probably want more for your current house than the market will tolerate. And, you want to pay less for something that meets your standards in a rising market. I believe this is often referred to as between a rock and a hard place.

Lily's Mom wrote:

If your wife reinstates her license, and becomes your listing agent, she will be paid about 1/4 of the commission when you sell. Maybe more, if she or an agent in her office brings the buyer. That is no small chunk of change and might solve your bottom line situation.

After that, she could possibly get a referral fee(discount) from a builder for bringing, you to him.

The other possibility is that if you purchase a lot, she would get a % of that sale, too.

Of course first to renew her license she'd have to pay a new fee, find a broker to sponsor her and then retake enough learning credits so her license will be renewed, print up business cards, etc. All of that costs money too.

I understand that 40k seems like a large chunk of change and it is a large chunk. But the truth is your agent isn't getting $40k. She'll wind up with $10k on the sale (unless she's the broker). In your estimation, what would you consider a fair amount for her to receive for selling your home?

Now having said that, we had an agreement with our agent that if she brought in the buyer, her commission would be 4% instead of 6%, which would have worked out better for her since she'd wind up with 2% vs 1.5%. Our agent earned every penny of her commission.

Also, if you're talking about saving 1% on the commission, you're looking at saving $6,666. If that is the difference between being able to build your new home or not, then I would say you consider either staying where you are, consider building smaller or find something already built.

I think you need to fsbo. If you are going to overprice your house,( and couldn't sell it even during a hot market, it's over priced unless I misunderstood your post), you shouldn't expect everyone else to cut their prices/commissions.

Either do a fsbo, flat fee mls only listing or have your wife get her license and sell it for you and represent you on the purchase of the new home.

Many people sell properties that are underwater and have to come to the settlement table with cash instead of walking away with a profit. Others sell properties for less than they want.

You should definitely try to fsbo. You claim that other people would benefit from the sale of your house and you have a bottom line you cannot/will not go below. If the realtor and the builder you hire are expected to go below their bottom line, you are actually the one who benefits while expecting others to fund your choice.

House just sold. Thank you for those who made constructive comments. Thanks too to those who made judgemental, moralistic comments. I know that you were trying to be helpful. :-)

Congratulations on getting your home sold in only 5 days so I'm guessing it must have been a cash deal to close and get your funds that fast. It takes over a week just to get the title work in my area.

Sadly not 5 day. More like 70 but I think that was pretty good. We got 98% of our asking price which I am happy with. Of course we have not closed yet, so ...

Hoping it all goes well for you. Even 70 days is very good.

Did anyone give you any concessions?

No concessions.