REAL ESTATE COMMISSIONS-SHOULD THEY BE THE SAME FOR BUYER AND SELLER AGENT?

This question for me has came up before. I had a discussion one day with my colleague about this. They told me that some agents when they are a listing agent will make their percentage of commission higher. I asked why is that and they told me because its harder to get listings. I thought about that and could almost understand but I came to the conclusion that I would always be 100% equal with my commissions. I came to this conclusion because I have worked with tons of buyers and realized that to say I do more work when listing then I do with working with a buyer is just not true.

I have worked very hard for buyer’s. Do not get me wrong, I have worked hard for seller’s to but to my point it will all equals out. So I had a recent settlement and in the MLS where it tells you the percentage of commission is I did not see the listing agents commission just what mine would be. Well when I got the Hud 1 I saw that my commission was way less then the listing agents. I have to be honest , I was not happy about this. I thought about it and thought , yes this listing agent did do a good job. He was almost to aggressive with everything. So he did work really had as the listing agent , I can not take that away.

Here is the overall feeling though I was left with, insulted. The reason I felt insulted is because the listing agent had determined he was working harder and his role was more important than mine. I believe we all work hard. If you get to settlement it takes a lot of work on both sides. Now it was tempting when I saw the number difference for me on my next listing to want to get that difference. I even thought wow it’s easy to just do not put in the MLS what percentage I am getting and then the other agent will not know until settlement. I thought through this though and my conscious said no , operate the way you want to be treated on the other end. Operate with full transparency and honorably. I will always be equal across the board. It is not worth trying to get a extra percentage or percentage and half at the cost of the others sides agent.

Thanks,

Tonya