Portland Real Estate Buyers Agent Commission Rates 2021

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Real Estate Commission is not typically split 50/50 between the sellers and buyers agent.

Many sellers assume that real estate commission, whether they are paying their real estate agent 6%, 5%, 4%, or something else, is simply split 50/50 with the buyers agent. This would be a false assumption. All real estate commissions and negotiable and there are no set standards. What we can do is report on what sellers agents are offering buyers agents in a local real estate market. Buyers agent commission is typically advertised in local MLS systems by sellers agents. In the Portland, Oregon real estate market, RMLS is the system used by most sellers agents, and all the listings in RMLS have some rate of buyer’s agent commission offered (usually a percentage of the sales price). This is designated as BAC and all members of the RMLS system can expect that if they bring a buyer to that listing and make an offer on the buyer’s behalf that is accepted by the seller who is represented by a sellers agent in that matching MLS, then they will receive the BAC or buyer’s agent commission offered.

What is commission rate is offered to the buyers agent matters.

If you make a living showing homes to buyers, then the amount you’ll make on a sale will be important to you. Buyers agents, if they are Realtors, have a fiduciary responsibility to put their client’s interests before their own. So buyers agents are not supposed to choose what listings they show their clients based on the offered buyers agent commission.

2021 Portland Buyers Agent Commission Rates

These numbers are for the first quarter of 2021 from RMLS for Portland city proper, sold detached (not condos, land, or commercial) residential homes for sale. In that time there was 1965 sales. The buyers agent commission rate offered was:

3%Offered 5 times.
2.9%Offered 0 times.
2.8%Offered 0 times.
2.75%Offered 2 times.
2.7%Offered 34 times.
2.6%Offered 0 times.
2.5%Offered 1,498 times.
2.4%Offered 0 times.
2.3%Offered 6 times.
2.25%Offered 190 times.
2.0%Offered 14 times.
1% – 1.9%Offered 6 times.
Misc. (not above)Offered 210 times.

Visual Chart of Portland Offered Buyers Agent Real Estate Commission

The national conversation on buyers agent commission continues in 2021.

Most national home search portals still do not publish offered buyers agent commission rates alongside listings. Redfin recently started publishing buyer’s agent commission in some cases, in others they were restricted from doing so by local MLS systems or various associations. NWMLS, an powerful MLS system based in Seattle, recently made the decision to allow home search sites to publish the advertised buyers agent commission alongside the listing. Recently the National Association of Realtors and the Department of Justice agreed in the winter of 2020 that Realtors would publish advertised buyers agent commission rates in MLS systems. The details and timelines on how that will be applied is not yet finalized. But certainly, significant buyers agent commission transparency is on its way.

We have always believed in commission transparency, publically advertising our rates in full detail.

We charge 4% max. commission in Portland and SW Washington. In Salem and Bend we charge 4.5% max. We always pay extra to list all our client’s homes on multiple MLS systems and we pay extra to feature their homes on national real estate home search portals. We top it off with a consumer-friendly cancel anytime policy for no charge. See everything we offer our home selling clients here.

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Stephen was just simply a fantastic realtor to work with in selling our home. If we had another 50 properties to sell, Stephen would be in charge of all of them. He was so professional in handling every detail of our sale, and he was so responsive to every question that came up in the course of our transaction. My wife and I are very thankful that we found Stephen.

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