You might wonder how does a real estate agent get paid…
…when they help buyers and sellers in buying or selling houses.
They are not paid hourly for their job or any salary (some brokerage may hire agents on salary basis)
Real estate agents in Fremont or anywhere in Bay area, California, most of them are paid in commission for their services.
When buying a home, 87% of the buyers use real estate agents, it may be for their first home or second home.
Most of the time, buyers start searching for homes in internet or open houses, and use agents to represent them in buying a home. You can see that most of the buyer’s still use real estate agents because, buying or selling home …show more content…
Taxes: Yes! Real estate agents pay taxes also, around 15% - 30% or more from their commission.
Business Expenses: They pay their association dues, gas (showing around homes to buyers), yard signs, flyers and all other various marketing to find buyers and sellers, office space lease, internet and other necessary items to run a smooth business.
Feed Family: After all these business expenses, taxes, brokerage split and marketing, real estate agent provide food on the table for their family from this commission paid at closing a transaction.
Now, you can see where this commission goes, which they get at closing of an escrow.
If an agent doesn’t sell a house, then they don’t get paid and they don’t get the money back, which they use for marketing.
Same on the buyer side, if the buyer doesn’t buy then the agent won’t get paid, even if they are showing houses to a buyer for few months.
How do agents get paid on short sales?
This is little bit complex transaction; the owner’s bank is also involved in the sale of the