{"id":1659,"date":"2007-07-15T11:00:27","date_gmt":"2007-07-15T18:00:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1659"},"modified":"2007-07-16T21:04:07","modified_gmt":"2007-07-17T04:04:07","slug":"divorcing-the-real-estate-commissions-is-simply-a-matter-of-hud-1-bookkeeping-effected-by-the-mortgage-lender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1659\/divorcing-the-real-estate-commissions-is-simply-a-matter-of-hud-1-bookkeeping-effected-by-the-mortgage-lender\/","title":{"rendered":"Divorcing the real estate commissions is simply a matter of HUD-1 bookkeeping effected by the mortgage lender"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a charmingly romantic post this morning<\/a>, Jonathan Dalton gets bogged down in the all-too-common idea that divorcing the Realtors’ commissions would impose some new financial burden upon buyers, resulting in their loss of representation.<\/p>\n

This is false. Although we operate by the fiction that the seller pays the real estate commissions out of the proceeds of the sale, in fact, if the buyer’s lender is not willing to fund the transaction, no sale will occur and no one will get paid. It’s useful in the abstract to envision the transaction as being either all-cash or 100% financed. In both cases, all the money is brought to the closing table by the buyer or the buyer’s lender.<\/p>\n

To effect the divorced commission in the overwhelming majority of transactions, all that is necessary is for lenders to change their underwriting guidelines, making corresponding changes in the way they illustrate the flow of funds on the HUD-1 settlement statement.<\/p>\n

Right now, many lenders will allow up to 7% in sales commissions, to be charged against the seller’s side of the HUD-1, with up to 3% in closing costs, also charged against the seller’s side of the HUD-1.<\/p>\n

If lenders changed their guidelines, such that no more than 3.5% could be charged against the seller for the compensation of the listing agent, with no more than 3.5% charged against the buyer for the compensation of the buyer’s agent, the commissions would be divorced.<\/p>\n

So far, this is nothing more than a change in underwriting guidelines and HUD-1 accounting. Absolutely nothing<\/i> has changed away from the paper-shuffling lender universe. The costs to the buyer and the proceeds to the seller are exactly the same.<\/p>\n

Not to rock too many boats at once, but it would also be possible for lenders to make their internal procedures and the HUD-1 bookkeeping more honest, putting a little extra money in the pockets of both buyer and seller.<\/p>\n

In the chart shown below, the first column illustrates the current procedure. The middle column shows how commissions can be divorced while retaining the psychotic style of accounting lenders currently deploy. The third column demonstrates how commissions can Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a charmingly romantic post this morning, Jonathan Dalton gets bogged down in the all-too-common idea that divorcing the Realtors’ commissions would impose some new financial burden upon buyers, resulting in their loss of representation. This is false. Although we operate by the fiction that the seller pays the real estate commissions out of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1659","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-lending","7":"category-marketing","8":"category-real-estate","10":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2202,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2202\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-cataloging-benefits-starting-with-a-complete-catalog-of-available-homes\/","url_meta":{"origin":1659,"position":0},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Cataloging benefits — starting with a complete catalog of available homes","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part IV: Divorcing the real estate commissions will result in benefits not just for buyers but also for their agents and for the real estate market as a whole The National Association of Realtors is embroiled right now in a protracted anti-trust suit brought by the United States Department of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2198,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2198\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-were-just-sitting-here-at-the-closing-table-watching-the-money-flow\/","url_meta":{"origin":1659,"position":1},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: We’re just sitting here at the closing table, watching the money flow","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part III: The who-pays-whom of real estate is not as simple as you might have thought... All right, let's go buy a house. I want to talk about the flow of money in a real estate transaction, and there is no better way of understanding that flow than wading right\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2208,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2208\/a-consumers-guide-to-the-divorced-real-estate-commission-undermining-the-arguments-in-support-of-the-status-quo\/","url_meta":{"origin":1659,"position":2},"title":"A consumer’s guide to the divorced real estate commission: Undermining the arguments in support of the status quo","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Part V: Why arguments for the current method of compensating real estate agents and against divorcing the real estate commissions must fail As I write this, the National Association of Realtors is preparing for its annual convention, to be held this year in America's playground, Las Vegas, Nevada. This year\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":550,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/550\/smashing-the-idols-understanding-market-value-in-full-context\/","url_meta":{"origin":1659,"position":3},"title":"Smashing the idols: Understanding market value in full context . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 17, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Nominate me Ikonoklastes, for I am come to raze this temple of half-baked ideas. I want to come back to the MLS later in the week, and I have a deep need to expose the motivations of brokers, as these are distinguished from the motivations of lesser licensees. But for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1283\/who-pays-the-buyers-agent-once-weve-divorced-the-commissions-we-can-stop-worrying-about-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":1659,"position":4},"title":"Who pays the buyer’s agent? Once we’ve divorced the commissions, we can stop worrying about it","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 9, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Joke Number one: Q: If you came upon the Buddha in the guise of a hot dog vendor, what should you say? A: Make me one with everything. Joke number two: Q: Top Drawer Listing Agent, why do you charge a 7% commission to list a home for sale? A:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1251,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1251\/redfincoms-real-estate-consumers-bill-of-rights-a-wolf-in-sheepskin-clothing\/","url_meta":{"origin":1659,"position":5},"title":"Redfin.com’s Real Estate Consumer’s Bill of Rights: A wolf in sheepskin clothing . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"April 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I am a hardliner on the subject of reform in the real estate industry. Over the last nine months, I have written at great length about, among other things, the skill-set required to survive in the future of full-service real estate, empowering buyers, dual agency, how the NAR makes war\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1659\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}