Many real estate consumers are bombarded today with the call for lower real estate commissions, and it would seem to make sense. As home prices have risen dramatically over the last couple of years, real estate commissions have dropped to 5.1 % as a national average according to industry sources. Mark Nash author of 1001 Tips for Buying and Selling a Home outlines how real estate commissions are paid out among the four principals to a residential transaction.

A typical real estate transaction today involves the property seller compensating their broker. Occasionally a home buyer retains a buyers broker and compensates them directly instead of the seller, fee-for-service home sellers usually only pay a flat fee to the listing brokerage and not a percentage commission. These two models are more the exception than the rule. In the traditional model the listing brokerage pays the cooperating (buyer