Does the buyer or seller usually pay realtor fees for closing on a house?

Question

I'm talking realtor fees only, not all the other fees involved.

Answer 1

Generally, the seller pays the REALTOR fees involved, since the seller has contracted with the agent to find him an acceptable buyer.  The listing agent will split the commission with the agent who finds the buyer.  In a buyer agency, however, the buyer is responsible to pay the fees of his agent, since the buyer contracted with the agent to find him a house.  In most buyer agency situations, the buyer agent would accept the normal commission split as full payment, unless the offered commission split is unacceptable.

Answer 2

Ordinarily the seller pays.  The Realtor represents the seller. There can be a "buyer's broker" but that is unusual.

Answer 3

Traditionally it has been the seller that paid.  In recent years because of the inherent conflict of interest of having the seller pay the buyer's realtor and the advent of buyer's agents the buyer may now pay his agent instead of the seller.

Answer 4

Both do.  Technically the buyer is fronting the money to pay for the home (part of that includes realtor's fees) but then the seller gets less from the sale at the same time.  Even if just one of you is represented by a realtor, you both pay for that fee, because it comes out of the purchase price (the price seller pays, the price buyer gets).  

I'm not making much sense.  It's kind of a theoretical question you are asking.  Let's say house is 100,000.  Realtor gets 5%.  Buyer pays 100,000 (which includes realtor's fees, so buyer is paying realtor) but seller doesn't actually get 100,000.  They only get 95,000.  So seller gets less because some of the price of the home went to realtor.  Make sense?

I see that everyone is answering 'seller'.  It is not unusual for buyers to have realtors at all, most do, and even if they don't and the listing agent handles both buyer and seller (dual agency) they have to look out for both parties interests, not just seller.  That being said, sellers take commissions into consideration when listing the price of the home.  Let's say you owed 100,000 on your home and needed to sell it for at least  that much to pay off your mortgage, but you knew that your agent would have to be paid x% of that amount.  So then you'd list it for x% more than 100,000 so you could break even.  Most people take fees and room for negotiations into account when chosing a listing price.  If you want 100,000, you don't list it for that.

Answer 5

The seller. Typically they pay 3% per side which means 6% total. If you are the seller and you plan to purchase a new house after the sale of your old one, you can often negatiate with your realtor to lower his or her fee on your side as long as you assure them you will use them as your agent for your purchase.

Answer 6

The seller almost always pays the realtor fees.  The only exception is if the buyer agreed in advance to pay their realtor some fee (but this almost never happens and when it does its usually a fee the realtor gets if they never get a commission).  Even if the buyers agent is a buyer broker (representing the buyer) the seller still pays their commission, though there is no law saying it has to go this way - its all negotiable.

Answer 7

The seller pays the realtor.