By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
Tim Morris, an associate broker with HomeSmart, said he’s starting to seen an increase in incentives for REALTORS®.
“Large builders are starting to recognize the need for resale REALTORS® again,” he said.
When the market was in a frenzy, homebuilders didn’t need Realtors to help sell their new homes, so homebuilders had dropped their commissions down to 1%.
Keith Burton, a REALTOR® with The Rider Elite Team in Scottsdale, said he’s seeing that, too.
“A number of builders reduced REALTOR® commission to 1% to even 0% even if you were the procuring cause, which means bringing the client to the builder,” Burton said. “Some of the builders never changed from the 3% of the base price.”
Now, Morris said he’s starting to see some of those homebuilders bump those commissions back up to 3%.
He’s also seeing some builders starting to participate in the buyer’s closing costs — something they didn’t need to do when the market was hot.
Morris said he’s also seeing builders buying down the interest rates or creating lending opportunities to make financing more affordable.
“They’re taking a portion of the sales revenue of the home and buying the interest rate down, which is a price reduction, but a more functional price reduction because it’s a payment reduction the buyer can understand,” he said.
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