Tom Goebel doesn’t need to make a lot of money like other Realtors, but he does like to make something for his efforts and therefore does not work for free.

Within this website www.Thomas-Goebel.CA  are details on “fees” as Tom has a number of plans. First of all, selling for owners, Mr. Goebel can guarantee that fees for both sides of the broker’s transactions do not exceed 4%, and on Tom’s hourly rate, often less, a lot less.

 For you as a buyer, I rebate 20% of what the listing broker pays me. This rebate has to be to exactly the name of the entity on the closing documents for it to be legal and encouraged by government officials. The best way is to use the rebate as a “credit” on the closing statement, but I am happy to issue a check.

Some brokers and some sellers, however rare, are not offering to pay Tom (or any broker) as the sell-side anything or such a measly amount that it represents a minimum wage. So what Mr. Goebel likes to do is to sign a short-term buyer representation agreement that might assure Mr. Goebel of a modest fee of 2%* or even a flat fee of $5k* which is covered 90%+ of the time by what most sellers and their agent brokers are offering to pay me. *(even these fees are subject to negotiation and are not fixed)

For example, a typical broker with a $1MM listing will often offer me 3% or $30,000 as the sell-side broker. My rebate would be $6k to the buyer. On a different targeted property find which may or may not be listed with a broker at all, we sometimes hear them say, I am not paying anything to sell-side broker. In that case, my minimum guarantee on the buyer representation agreement kicks in and the buyer can work my fee into the negotiations. On this example, the buyer might pay $995,000 for the listing property, and the minimum guarantee of $5k paid from your buyer’s end becomes “built into the price”.