American Estate Agencies - Selling Sunset

[Justfivemoreminutesplease]

Anyone know how it works please? Have just started watching Selling Sunset and I’ve got questions please! For example:

• when the agent gets commission, is that paid by the buyer on top of the purchase price? So if the house is sold for $3.9m and the agent gets a commission of (say) $100k, is that paid by the buyer? And on top of the $3.9 or is it part of that price?
• are the agents all self employed? Or do they pay their commission to the brokerage who then takes a cut?
• if they all earn $100,000s per sale, I assume that a large chunk goes in tax and it’s not pure profit??
• what’s escrow please? I assume if it’s only 30 days it’s a quick process in America to buy a property? Do they do searches etc? What if there’s a structural problem with the house? Can you back out in escrow??

Questions questions to be answered please!!

I don’t know but I’m interested in the broker vs agent set up.

I take it the buyer uses a broker who then buys in their behalf from the agent.

Does everyone do this or just the very wealthy?

• Part of the price, the agent doesn't get the full $100k though. They have to pay tax and some goes back to the office.
• They are self employed, they don't get a salary. - The best escrow explanation is attached. Yes you can back out

It all seems very Long winded and old fashioned. Too many middle men. Don’t they haver right move or some equivalent?

I've always wondered why they have a buyer's agent and a seller's agent. Is that universal, or just a rich person thing? I don't know why you'd need one as a buyer, seems like an unnecessary extra cost? Or do they function like solicitors here? So instead of the seller's estate agent and both sets of solicitors, they just have two agents?

Getting a broker’s licence seems a really big deal. I don’t get it either.

Thanks - and yes, another question please who does all the legal transfer work? Is that the agent or do they have conveyancers? In Selling Sunset, the two agents talk about emailing the papers over to each other 😆

The commission comes from the purchase price of the house. It isn't an additional charge. However, it does reduce the amount that the seller receives, which is why some people choose to forego having a real estate agent at all.

An escrow account is part of having a mortgage. You pay into it monthly together with your mortgage payment. It is used to pay property taxes and homeowner's insurance.

My sister is about to sell her house in USA. They have a realtor to sell the house. Buyers will have their own realtor to find them a property.
When people view the house my sister cannot be there, the buyers realtor will show the buyers around. Even my sister’s realtor will not be there!
My sister will pay her realtor 6% of the sale price, and the buyer will have to pay their realtor the same.
Also, my sister has had to redecorate her whole house plain off white and much of her furniture has been put in storage as only the minimum should be in the house while it's for sale.
Sounds a right convoluted system to me!

The buyer doesn’t pay the realtors commission, just the seller. It is split between both agents

@Twospaniels

My sister is about to sell her house in USA. They have a realtor to sell the house. Buyers will have their own realtor to find them a property. When people view the house my sister cannot be there, the buyers realtor will show the buyers around. Even my sister’s realtor will not be there! My sister will pay her realtor 6% of the sale price, and the buyer will have to pay their realtor the same. Also, my sister has had to redecorate her whole house plain off white and much of her furniture has been put in storage as only the minimum should be in the house while it's for sale. Sounds a right convoluted system to me!

6% is so high.

How has this not been undercut and lowered? Why is the percentage so high.

Never mind all this, how awful is Davina?!

Neither the buyer nor the seller need to have an agent. We sold a house a few years ago on our own ("for sale by owner") and the buyer didn't have an agent either. It can be useful to have an agent for various reasons on both sides, but it absolutely isn't necessary. Savvy buyers can use this to their advantage in negotiations, offering a lower price because they know that the seller won't have to pay a commission.

I was curious about how much of the commission they get too. Also do they not work in the mornings? In the episode I watched yesterday Chrishelle said she’d gone to work early, someone else came in and commented how early she’d arrived, yet the clock said 12:20. No one else had even come in yet.

Also do they not work in the mornings? In the episode I watched yesterday Chrishelle said she’d gone to work early, someone else came in and commented how early she’d arrived, yet the clock said 12:20. No one else had even come in yet.

I've not seen this particular show but in American 'reality' shows they do tend to stage quite a lot of scenes (it was the big difference between American and UK wife swap - the terribly stilted staged scenes compared to announcement that no scenes were staged and everything was real ... well, that and the sheer level of crazy)

The scene you saw sounds like they staged her talking about and going into work (so could have been done on any day at any time) ... but nobody thought to alter the clock.