I have an agent friend who worked with a very good customer whom he offered a rebate to.  Let’s call this customer Jack, who’s from China, looking for a new home for his family.  Jack understands the limited service nature of this arrangement.  He initially was offered 1% off his home purchase via a buyer agent commission rebate in NYC; however, he pushed and received a 1.5% rebate.  That’s equivalent to 50% of the commission earned by the buyers’ agent in a typical transaction (where the total commission is 6%).

Jack understands that he must go to viewings and open houses himself.  Afterwards, he will ask his broker to help submit offers on his behalf.  Another important thing for him to do is to let his broker know in advance which homes he wants to schedule private viewings for.  This is because if he contacts the listing agent directly for a private viewing, the listing agent may have cause to say that the buyer agent wasn’t a “procuring cause” of the contact since he wasn’t present at the “first substantial contact” with the buyer.

Therefore, Jack gets the occasional piece of advice and listing ideas from the agent, but Jack is content to search for himself primarily on the internet. After all, it’s a shame to brokers how good the search functionality is on some of these real estate search websites.  Jack meets just once with the broker for a total of 30 minutes, but otherwise views properties by himself!  When it’s time for submitting an offer, the agent sends it in and helps him negotiate.  The agent will also help procure color from listing agents.  When it’s all said and done, Jack goes to the closing with his attorney and the agent picks up his commission check from the attorney several days later.  The agent provides a check to Jack for half the commission check and they shake hands!

I had to relay this story because this is exactly how the NYC buyer agent commission rebate model should work (and it’s completely legal in NY).  You couldn’t have asked for a better customer!
It’s important for more people, especially needy/demanding unrealistic New Yorkers (you know who you are) to realize that not everything in life is free.  If you’re getting a freebie you need to realize that you need to step up and do some of the work.  There is no free lunch.

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