Toronto Real Estate-Did your agent tell you they were charging the Selling Agent a marketing fee?



Posted: Tuesday, May 26, 2009

by Diane Plant
Team Plant

What is a real estate marketing fee? Simply put-it is an arbitrary amount of money a Listing Agent will charge a Selling Agent for helping him/her market the property they are listing on MLS.

My question to the Seller is-why did you hire that Listing Agent if they were going to charge another agent to sell the listing?

Did your agent disclose the fact that they were going to charge a marketing fee? Did you Mr./Mrs. Seller know that that marketing fee could negatively impact your listing, no showings or reduced showings?

The marketing fee is found on the Broker's portion of the listing and these are just a few examples of how it looks when a realtor sees your listing. Note:The 2.5% is what the Selling Broker gets, and that is on the MLS Agreement you signed, but the -$50, or -$300 or -$100 is the amount being deducted from the Selling Brokerage commission and probably was not disclosed to you and if it was did you understand exactly what is is, and why your agent is not paying to market the property?

CB Comm: 2.5% -$50

CB Comm: 2.5% -$300

CB Comm: 2.5$-$100

We all know that the Code of Ethics forbids us from "black-balling" a listing. Let's get real. If there are 5 listings in a given area that an agent is looking at to show, 4 do not have a marketing fee and 1 does. Is the Selling Agent going to bother showing the one with a fee, unless it is written up to pre-sell that it can not be passed over?

I think that agents should fully disclose what the Listing Brokerage receives, what the Selling Brokerage receives and what the Listing Agent is going to charge (if any) another agent for selling their listing .

Oh, by the way, Mr/Mrs Seller-did you get an accounting of exactly what your agent is going to do for you to market your property. That marketing fee might just be a money grab and your listing agent just puts your property on MLS and hopes it will sell.

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