The Realtor sent me a big cookie basket, last time I used one, which was long ago, as I usually buy at auctions. She was making plenty of dough on that commission. I did say thanks for the basket though!

If you are going to do this, maybe a gift card to a nice restaurant? Or flowers?

Agree. Referral/testimonial and their big fat commission.

The thank you gift usually goes from the realtor to the client.

Referrals are the appreciation shown in the other direction and are much more valuable than any gift card.

Happily paid the commission, referred her to friends, and continue to think well of her. It was a business relationship so nothing else required or expected.

Back in 1999 there wasnt a way to rate a business on the internet, but
now there is - giving your realtor 5 stars would be a great way to thank him or her.

If you have some other kind of relationship with her or expect to remain in contact w/ her as a friend - then that's different and you can choose a gift appropriate to the relationship that you have.

Trying to remember if my realtor gave me a gift - I guess she did ! Both she and the seller's realtor gave me a little bit of cash to hire a cleaner because the seller had left the place in a shambles after promising it would be cleaned up. It was very appreciated!

I've had realtors give me a custom picture of my new home. One realtor gave me a night's stay at a local B&B because they knew we would be coming in from out of town. One realtor gave us a home warranty. I'll confess, that one made me nervous. Those were very thoughtful gifts.

It goes both ways. I just gave my realtor a house warming present because she bought a new house. We have become social friends.

Of course you could give them a small gift certificate for dinner or a bottle of wine. Usually, it's something personal and thoughtful. But, it's not expected.

The best gift is a referral for a listing. I did that, too. Twice. I've even provided her with appraisal advice. I'm an appraiser.

Ditto about commission being sufficiently adequate.

I've never given a gift to a realtor. For me It's a business relationship like many others for which I don't give gifts. I understand businesses giving gifts to customers but not the other way around. If you are particularly fond of your realtor and feel compelled to give a token of appreciation then I'd recommend a gift card to a restaurant unless you know he/she drinks wine then maybe a nice bottle of wine (or single malt scotch if they drink that). Our realtor gave us a gift card to a nearby restaurant. It's something you can always make use of.

Referrals for future business!

No gift. Just a thank you and a good online rating. You've already paid them a boatload of money, so why give them even more? I hardly think a $50 gift card to a restaurant would even make them blink an eye, since they'd just earned thousands for selling your house. lol

My Realtor donates a portion of her commission to a charity of my choice- thanks for the business. It's neither too small nor too large. I give her referrals, as my thanks, to her.

Referrals and saying to everyone how impressive she was:)

I bought our realtor a bottle of Maker's Mark with a Thank you note. We do see him socially occasionally.

He bought us a new US flag for the island bed flagpole - and installed it.

We gave our Realtor $1,000 in a card when we sold our house in NY. She worked her tail off for us. We adore her!

She was also screwed by another Realtor who demanded she split the commission with her. The Company they worked for backed up the Realtor we never used and she lost half her commission. Horrible!

When we moved to a different State, we had used three different Realtors over a year. The last one was wonderful. She worked so hard for us and was also compassionate and understanding. Frankly, she put up with me during a very stressful time.

When we finally closed on our house, we decided to buy her a new iPad. That was our gift to her. She loved it and still uses that, now old iPad for her business. I refer her to anyone I know who is selling/buying.

Jane

Jan, we where in a stressful situation too. This is our first and hopefully only home we will buy. At first we went with a well known, well respected realtor that been an agent/ broker for over 30 years. He treated us like we were young dumb idiots. He didn't want to show us houses we were interested in or ones that was in our price range. He told us that he would only show us the type of houses that he would move into if he where on looking, so he that could sell it in 10yrs for top dollar. The last house he showed us wasn't worth the asking price. Other houses in the same are that was for sell or pending at that price point we're nicer remodeled houses with a lot more square footage. Then he told us that the sellers agent had emailed him saying that the sellers we're going to fix up the house. They didn't say what was going to be done. A week later they "updated" the listing and pics. All the pictures was the same, but they bragged about the new paint job and updated kitchen, but nothing had been done. Then "new" pictures looked exactly the same except they had add a stainless steel microwave in the kitchen. Then on top of that the list price went up by $15,000. Needless to say we didn't want it. but the first realtor called me for 3 days demanding we put on offer in because he knoew what house he's clients were going to buy even if it was something they didn't want. A friend of mine recommend the second realtor to us. She is awesome. we can't say enough nice things about her. She made our dream a reality and now we have our forever home.

my realtor sold me two houses and then sold one of those for me - so three commissions.

Joshall Fites, you do NOT need that nonsense. When we were first looking so many years ago, we got the same treatment. One agent took us to a 2 bedroom/1 bath in a less desirable neighborhood and said, "THIS is what you can afford right now." I thought it was hilarious and took that as a personal challenge. We had to wait awhile before the perfect situation of a house auction done by an out-of-area company who got the address wrong in the paper (!!) came up, but it finally happened. I bought a 4 bedroom, multiple bath, with 11 stained glass windows and all sorts of fantastic tile in the best area of the city.... for under 90K. Retail at that time was about $200K. It had some startling wallpaper...no biggie.

The backup bidder was very annoyed that he hesitated and tried to get the auction re-opened, to no avail. Eight years later, I put a FSBO sign in the yard one evening, walked inside, and heard squealing brakes a few minutes later. The original backup bidder still wanted the house and paid asking price so I wouldn't show it to anyone else. It had tripled in value by then. Definitely a nice way to get into the real estate market.

Don't let Realtors tell you you can't have what you want. Listen to what they say, and then look on your own. In my opinion as a buyer, seller, and frequent remodeler/restorer real estate auctions are your best bet for getting a better house for less money than you will acquire on the retail market.