I have a really powerful way to have an honest conversation about commissions with a seller.

This is a great script from one of my top producers.

Here's what he says: "Hey, listen, here's my listing fee. My listing fee is [X, which could be 2.5%, 2%, 3%, or whatever number you choose.] I'm not trying to price-fix here. But what we really need to talk about is what we're going to pay the buyer's agent. We need to look at this as a marketing incentive to get buyer's agents to show the property.

To help you make a decision on what to offer the buyer's agent, I recommend doing a commission map survey. Put a pin on a map and look at every listing that sold within a certain radius, such as a mile, five miles, or half a mile. Of the listings that sold in the area in the last six months, you can see what commission they offered to the buyer's agent.

Based on that, you can decide where you want to be. You...

We are in a different marketplace, aren't we? The market totally rolled over into a buyer's market in a lot of price categories. And because of that, we need to hone our negotiation skills. So today I'm gonna give you 10 strategies to help you be a better negotiator. Because we know if a buyer feels good about the negotiation, they're gonna often be excited, and tell their friends and family to use use to purchase their next property.

Remember, it's all about referrals and doing an amazing job.

1. Discovering the motivation

It's simple, but it's interesting how many agents haven't done that. We just had an offer come into my office over $2 million and guess what? It was electronically sent without a phone call to the other agent. Very frustrating experience for the listing agent. But this is the example of a lot of buyer's agents that don't have any training. They're not calling the other listing agent and asking simple...