[quote=drboom]You can argue semantics all you want, but I did in fact pay 1% less than I would have if I had been a good boy and followed the rules. Maybe you’re too rich to care, but that’s real money to me. I know it’s just a discount on the commission that I, as a buyer, am paying (see my previous post) so I don’t fool myself into thinking it’s “found money”.
Do you feel threatened by that?[/quote]
Actually, no, drboom, I don’t feel “threatened” at all. If it made your problematic deal work and was a win-win for both of you, then it appears that a full-service agent made a business decision to kick you back half their commission to get the deal done. The listing agent actually made less out of the sale than you did because he had expenses and possibly commission splits to boot! So, count yourself lucky here.
1% of a purchase price is real $$ to me, too. But let’s just dissect this 1% a little. We will presume here an 80/20 deal with a 5.5% 30 yr. fixed-rate mortgage, a total tax rate of 1.15634 and a $1000 deductible replacement-value fire policy (no earthquake coverage). Monthly costs of owning are shown below:
