Does the Seller Pay for Real Estate Commissions When Selling a Short Sale?

There are always a lot of questions when we go to sign listing agreements with new short sale clients. One big one is – “Do we have to pay the real estate commission if the bank is not willing to pay it in full?” Here is my answer to a recent client with this same question:

…This is always paid by the lender and we take whatever they give us and never ask you for the difference  and we put that in writing through  the ‘3^rd party approval’ in the listing agreement. Basically if the 3^rd party doesn’t agree to our commissions, the list price, etc.. then they will counter us and we always take whatever they give us. They often reduce our listing and the buyer agent’s 3% commission in short sales but we start at %6 so we have negotiating room when they do ask for a reduction. We also do not have any administrative fees or retainer fees.