Real Estate Fraud
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Real estate commissions: What does it cost and who really pays?

Published on 2016-07-04 in the Ottawa Citizen

The real estate industry operates on being paid only upon a successful result. This means that if your property does not sell or close, you do not pay.

The fact that the fees associated with real estate are based on this contingency is good for consumers. But does this mean that a successful seller pays for the collective work done by real estate agents in all of those unsuccessful transactions? This may be a reason why fees have hovered around 5% for some time now, even as house prices have escalated tremendously over the past 20 years. I guess the real question is what is a fair fee to pay for a successful real estate transaction and how does it all work in paying for the services of both the sellers’ agent and the buyers’ agent?