I've seen builders offering buyer co-brokes of 12% on some spec homes. And thing like 50, 60, 70K in incentives to the buyers, free pools, etc.

They're dying out here. Makes it tough for a residential resale to do anything too...

I've seen 5-6% also offered on some of the new construction places around here.  Haven't heard of anything above 6% though.

They have offered just about anything they could as incentives.  Cars, gas for a year gift cards, upgrades, pools, furniture gift cards, no payments for a year, no HOA dues for a year, plasma TV's...you name it, they've probably offered it here.

As of this morning in the Bradenton area (Manatee County) there are 6,919 Active for sale and 670 under contract.

In the Tampa area (Hillsborough County) there are 15,658 Active for sale and 2,015 under contract.

I think it is a sign of an industry-wide mea culpa for having treated us like dirt during the hot seller's market.  Many builders alienated agents during that time and are now paying the price for it.

Namneet, the gist of your article has already been pounded into the pavement many, many times.  What I do find interesting is that your article on Apr. 16th voices opposition to advertising their listings and local areas.  Yet your article includes a hyperlink to your website along with mentioning Centex's co-op. As a well known scholar once asked, "Wazupwidat"???  

The highest we have seen in the Boston market is 4% and that is rare. Our market came back pretty quick, relatively speaking. Since we don't have a lot of land and tough rules and regs for building we are able to keep things moving. Not too mention we have a lot of industry that is doing well right now and more colleges & universities than you can shake a stick at.

I personally wouldn't say that it is a sign of a worsening market because developers are offering such high commissions. I am more apt to think they just NEED to move their inventory so they don't lose even more than they already have or just keep the losses to a minimum.

Can someone please tutor me on how to find some love for Mr. Rotondo? :)

DR Horton in Ft Worth (...no relation, dagnab it) big builder around here just posted a 40% drop in sales for the second quarter. Last year I had several new sales for one of those, earned 3% + a 5K bonus. This year I just closed a re-sale that was just below the original sale price.

Not a good indicator, anyway you look at it.

Scott, we tried to hook him up the other day. And I don't recall any pavement pounding, I would have remembered that.

Mary,

ubad

Builders (spit) only love us when they need us.  All these incentives do is destroy the buyers' equity for years.  The reason the builders do this incentive thing is so that they do not have to show price declines in the neighborhood. If they cut the price, they would have a revolt of existing homeowners plus they would not be able to get the appraisals they need for current sales.

I use the shrimp index as a measure of the builders' desperation.  At their open house, check the size of the shrimp.  The bigger the shrimp, the higher the catering cost and the more desparate the builder is.  When they get to that oxymoron "Jumbo Shrimp" you know you can cut some deals for your buyers.

Namneet,

In my market just north of Detroit Mi. the large builders are offering large incentives to Realtors just to bring clients into their sales office.  They are offering to put Realtors on a referral list if the buyer purchases one of the spec homes.   When the builder has a potential buyer that needs to sell their current home, they will refer agents off the list.  To go along with that, they are giving huge incentive packages including granite, professional landscaping, etc.... to the buyer & large selling bonuses to the buyers agent.

There is very strong competition here with the new Trump buidling going up on the site of the old Sun Times building. Being a riverfront property, all the other area developers that have developments in downtown Chicago are beefing up the incentives but leaving the commission at a steady 5% - 6%.

Our builders in the Charleston area were very nice to us during the good times and are continuing to be very nice to our clients and us during these tougher times.

We have one really bad little development offering 12% but that is only valid with no sales concession to the buyer. As they might say in NJ, fuhhhhhhgetaboutitttttttttt.

That's like offering a bonus with a full price offer only. One should not be contingent upon the other.

Otherwise, commissions range from 3 to 6 and a bonus may or may not be available. I just wrote a contract for a client and got $30k in free upgrades and $5k toward closing costs, basically, base price and a nicely upgraded home. Commission was 3 which was less than I could have gotten by encouraging them elsewhere but I am working for my client's interests, not for the best deal for my bank account.