The rate stayed. The job didn’t.

One

Sellers need an advocate now more than ever

The National Association of REALTORS® has spent the last few years responding to lawsuits about how commissions are paid on properties listed in the MLS. The settlement changed the mechanics of every transaction.

The most consequential change: a buyer’s broker can no longer see what compensation, if any, the seller is offering on the listing. It is not published on the MLS. Which means every part of the deal — from listing agreement to closing table — is now genuinely negotiable.

We have already seen how that plays out. A seller offers too little to the buyer’s broker; the broker discovers it during the transaction; and the shortfall comes straight back at the seller inside the negotiation. The money does not disappear. It just moves to a place where the seller has less leverage.

In that environment a seller needs someone in their corner whose specific job is to protect their number. That is what we are.

Two: we rejected the fees, not just the rate

The assumed “standard” is still the 6% model — 3% to the listing broker and 3% to the buyer’s broker. Our position, and the reason we started this brokerage, is the same reason we rejected the additional fees brokerages charge to sellers and buyers.

Those fees are cloaked as an Administrative Fee, a Brokerage Fee, or a Transaction Fee, and they can be as high as $600. They are rarely explained and almost never questioned.

We feel our commission is sufficient. If the work has been priced honestly, there should be no need to go looking for more of your money on the closing statement.

Three: the 3% model is priced for a job that no longer exists

The 3% model has been around for decades, but the market has changed underneath it. Selling a home used to require printed materials, brick-and-mortar offices, photographs developed in a dark room and then printed for newspaper advertisements and mailings. It took a great deal of time, and the reach was whatever the local paper reached.

All of it is now done digitally and online — faster, and with far broader reach. We can present a property with everything buyers expect inside a 24-hour period. We know what they want and we can meet that expectation.

Because we use smart business practices, we can reduce our commission. What good does a prestigious address or a large building do for a seller? Why pay for that? Why not sell smarter and check off more boxes for less money?

What we charge

A 1.5% listing commission — half the 3% still treated as standard. A $1,000 retainer, which includes pre-listing appraisal, is paid when we take the listing and will be refunded to you at closing, so your total cost is 1.5% and never more. Compensation to a buyer’s broker is separate, negotiable, and entirely your decision. No administrative fee, no brokerage fee, no transaction fee.

The retainer is there because every piece of the production — photography, floor plan, 3D tour, drone, streaming campaign, property website — is created and paid for before your home reaches the market. It commits both of us. And because it is refunded at closing, it costs you nothing in the end: the rate you were quoted is the rate you pay.