You can always ask, he isn't obligated to drop his commission and he may not. We were putting an offer on a house once and were making our very best offer and our realtor offered on her own to lower her commission so that we could make a bigger offer and make it sweeter for the sellers.

The agent's agreement which cover's commission is with the seller not you. I think I see what you are trying to do, but I'm not sure how it would be structured since it is soooo not done.

Asking him to drop his commission is equal with him asking you to pay so he can benefit even more. I think this is an excellent way of souring your relationship with him.

"the listing agent and our agent are the same"

The same person, or the same office or company? If it is the same person, I would think you have a reasonable shot at it, assuming it is legal.

However, from everything I have read, it is a bad idea to have the same person handle both sides of a listing.

I don't think there is anything wrong with it at all. All real estate commissions are negotiable. I would definitely broach the subject with him.

Of course it's okay. Everything's negotiable and I've had agents lower their commission to help a deal go through. You're in the driver's seat--not the agent--and any agent who would be offended by the question shouldn't be in the business.

You've got nothing to lose by asking. This is a business transaction, you're not trying to become bosom buddies with the agent. I am in a service industry and get people asking all the time to give them a discount so they can benefit more! And I do the same! That's business!

You can ask but the Agent is under no obligation to do it.

Our first Realtor was supposedly one of my best friends (and she had also received a commisson on the house we had built) and I had to ask her about lowering the commission--it would have been nice if she would have volunteered since she was the agent in both transactions. As it was she would not go lower than 5.5 (standard here is 6%).

Our new Realtor did more for us before the listing agreement was ever even signed than the three other agents did in 6 months. It never crossed my mind to ask him to lower his commission. He will have earned every penny (his cut is 24K, total is 48K if we sell at ~30K under the current list price) by the time this house is sold!

I just sold a home & it turned out that the buyer's agent & seller's agent were the same (dual agency). Now, my agent worked very hard to make sure that this particular offer would be accepted by me.
So I'm guessing that the motivation of double commission will help steer the home in your direction, if it is at all possible.
Good luck
Susan

You have to be really careful - the same broker and the same agent are two totally different things.

Certainly there are some significant benefits to being the same brokerage and you may be able to ask for a discount. Be cogniscient that they may already be losing their shirt a bit on this because relos generally are bad deals when a property has to be purchased by the company.

That being said - I'd definitely ask. At a MINIMUM you should be able to get 20% of the buyer's agent's commission - that's completely reasonable.

I don't think you necessarily have to ask. Make your offer based on what you want to pay. The agent may then decide to cut his commission to make the deal work. It may depend on the other offer. For example, let's say that the other party offers $380,000. After paying a 6% commission of $22,800 the sellers would net $357,200. Your agent would then split that commission with the other office and his office would receive $11,400. If you offer $375,000 your agent would be able to reduce the commission to $15,000, enabling the sellers to walk away with $360,000 AND put more money in his pocket. So you don't have to actually come out and ask for the reduction in commission. You can bet that your agent will be looking at how to make it a win/win/win situation for you, the sellers and himself.

terricks - good point. If you get to a stalemate in the negotiations it might be something that you might want to 'remind' the agent.

A few years ago, we were in a stalemate situation when we made an offer on a condo and the agents let us walk away from the transaction rather than lower their commission; they did not offer to do it and when my husband brought it up, they refused. Their loss; we were not willing to budge upwards anymore.

So you can always ask; they are under no obligation to do it though.