How We Work
The real estate industry has changed a lot over the past few years. More and more homeowners
are asking themselves this question, “do we really have to pay that much money just to sell our
home?” The answer is no, you don’t.
At rhinorealty we get the fact that you would like to see a sensible correlation between the work
involved in selling your home, and the amount of money charged to provide that service. We also
get the fact that you would like to achieve the highest possible sale price. Working towards
achieving the maximum net proceeds from your sale is a common goal we share with you, and
this is how we do it:
Our Listing Agent Commission
As a home seller in Alberta, you will be responsible for paying your listing brokerage a ‘total fee’ and then your listing agent will ‘offer’
a portion of that fee to all cooperating buyer’s agents. A common practice for traditional brokerages is to charge you 7% of the first
$100,000 plus 3% of the balance of sale price (7/3) plus GST, as the total fee and then keep half of that for themselves and offer the
other half to all cooperating buyer’s agents. So in this case, your listing agent keeps 3.5% of the first $100,000 plus 1.5% of the
balance of sale price (3.5/1.5) plus GST, and offers that same amount to all cooperating buyer’s agents. Wow, that’s a lot of numbers
and percentages, does it really need to be that complex? No, it doesn’t.
Here at rhinorealty, we've sold thousands of homes over the past 13 years and we know that charging you 3.5/1.5 for our listing fee is
excessive and unnecessary, so we don't do it. We also know that selling a $600,000 home is the same amount of work as selling a $400,000
home, so we just charge you a flat fee regardless of your sale price. Isn't that a lot less complicated? We think so. Visit 'Our Fees' page
for complete details. And remember, under no circumstances does our discount flat fee commission equate to reduced services. Our
“full service” is as complete, or better, than any real estate services you can hire.
The Buyer’s Agent Commission
Yes, you do need to offer a cooperating buyer’s agent commission. Why, because that’s how the MLS® System works. But is it
necessary to pay that cooperating buyer’s agent 3.5/1.5? In most cases, the answer is no. Our agent will confer with you on this topic
and recommend an amount that you should offer as a cooperating buyer’s agent commission. A high majority of our listings are
sold with a cooperating buyer’s agent commission that is less than the commonly offered 3.5/1.5.
Saving money on the buyer’s agent side of the commission is definitely possible but very few real estate brokerages will allow you to
even try. Why do we do this? Well, the short answer is we believe that’s why you hired us. Looking after your best interests is in our
best interest. Besides, we love increasing your savings, it makes our business model look great!
Our Home Buyer’s Cashback Reward Program
For those of you that are relocating within any one of our service areas, Calgary and surrounding
your savings can keep on growing! Just use one of our qualified buyer’s agents to represent you in that purchase, and
then, on the possession day of your new place, we’ll reward you with a very sizeable CashBack cheque! Visit our Buyers section for
complete details of this program.
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