Whether your home has gone up or down in value lately, you probably want to keep as much money from the sale as possible. After you pay off your existing mortgage, your real estate commission may be the next largest expense in selling your home. Negotiating the amount you pay to your real estate agent could therefore be the easiest way to save money.
In a typical home sale, each party -- the buyer and the seller -- works with his or her own real estate agent. But it's the seller who generally pays the commission for both real estate agents from the proceeds of the sale. When listing your home with an agent, you have an opportunity to set the amount of commission both agents will receive. The commission is set as a percentage of the home's sales price. Most selling agents will ask for a commission of 6%, to be split 50-50 with the buyer's agent (who will thus receive 3%).