In the world of high priced and fast selling real estate, some of the fees assessed to a Seller or Purchaser can be overlooked and underappreciated. One such fee is the “transaction fee” or “broker service fee”.

The fee is relatively new in our Firm’s experience to the Great Lakes Bay area. The fee is normally between $150.00 and $500.00. Typically, it is charged by the Seller’s real estate professional on top of their real estate commission to the Seller. Remember that this fee is a flat fee paid on top of the 6.0-7.0% commission paid to the real estate professional and their broker.

Real estate professionals will tell you it is to cover their costs for storage and management. A Broker will charge it and then it is up to the agent themselves to pass the cost on to their customer. When we can, we ask that our real estate professionals remove it from the Listing Agreement.

Our Firm works with many outstanding real estate professionals. My advice is to ask them to remove it from the Listing Agreement. If they won’t, then ask them to lower their commission rate, which should more than make up for the difference.