I think that a breakpoint system in the San Diego market could please both sides.

With a buyers agent scenario does the agent work harder to help the buyer purchase a $1M home than a $500k home? On the $500k transaction an agent could give up .25% and on the $1M transaction give 1% back to buyer. At your std 2.5% that would be $11,250 gross on $500k and $15k gross on $1M for the agent. Maybe not the perfect example but I’m sure someone could come up with a breakpoint table that is proportional. I know many variables come into play for the buyers agent but I think it is a little harder to help someone purchase the $500k home because of competition in that $ range.

Now for the sellers agent we could take La Jolla as an example with 2 places that realtors would agree are in great shape and priced to sell. One is a 2br/2ba condo for $600k and a 3/2 SFR for $1.2M. Whats wrong with giving a 1% discount to the seller on the SFR priced at $1.2M. If it sold for that then your looking at $18k gross where the condo would be 13.5k gross with the .25% discount. Once again, I think a listing agent might actually work longer to get the condo sold.

Whats a good argument against a breakpoint system?