"It just has to be looked at as a junk fee," Stephen Brobeck, a senior fellow at the Consumer Federation of America, told me."They can get away with it, so they charge it." When you enlist a real-estate agent to help you buy or sell a home, one of the first things you'll want to ask them is how they get paid. The vast majority of real-estate agents are independent contractors who rely on commissions to earn a living.
The size of the fee runs the gamut, though it typically ranges between $250 and $500, Brobeck told me. An agent in Las Vegas who recently switched brokerage firms and requested anonymity to talk about their fee structures told me he interviewed with seven brokerages when he was making the change. All charged an admin fee, usually between $400 and $600.
"Certainly they go toward the bottom line of any brokerage," Robinette told me."But it's just gravy. It's all about increasing the profit." A forthcoming agent will disclose any admin fee right at the beginning of the process. Often a buyer or a seller will sign an agreement with their agent that outlines the fees they can expect to pay — when they list their house, for example, or before they make their first offer on one. But that doesn't always happen, and the legal requirements can vary from state to state. Sometimes clients simply don't read through the documents they're signing.