North/West Van Realty Questions

chowder wrote: ↑ [*]A realtor getting 2.5% commission on a house of this price doesn't make sense to me when I don't imagine they do any more work than a realtor helping someone purchase a $1m home. I assume this is negotiable?

not even more than with a purchase of 500k home, same as an agent doesn't do much more work representing Lebron than some noname, but still gets his 10% nonetheless, just a reality like it or not
but more to the point, everything is negotiable, but keep in mind that both commissions are negotiated and written down in the listing agreement and I doubt that you might find many people willing to modify it along the way

chowder wrote: ↑ [*]I assume if we can find a place on our own and the seller won't need to pay our realtor's commissions, we'd be able to negotiate 2-2.5% off the price.

possible in theory, in reality I doubt it, might as well just find a realtor that offers cashback

chowder wrote: ↑ [*]I'm hard pressed to think a realtor will help a buyer negotiate a lower price, since that would affect the realtor's commission. A higher price is better for the realtor.

while there are plenty of sketchy people, clearly not everyone is like that, with your logic we would never see a property go below asking, however it happens all the time. Not to mention that at the end of the day the only thing realtor does is advise, ultimately it's up to you to offer certain price

"A realtor getting 2.5% commission on a house"

That is not likely to be the commission rate in North Van.

Standard rate for buyer commission is 3.125% on the first $100K & 1.1625% on the balance.

It is still a lot of money for what may be little work, but not nearly as much.