104 John Shroyer Today Sotheby's International Realty San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA San Carlos CA $89,235,624.65 john@johnshroyer.com

Wow, 3% of even $100 million sounds like a pretty hefty take-home pay to me. Seems like, prices being what they are, it might be time to reconsider the "standard" 6% commission split between buying and selling agents... How about 1% each?

Posted by Steve:
Is it surprising to you that the top 250 in the nation, make a great living? How about pooling earnings and split these equally among the 2,500,000 Realtor/Brokers in the US. That might be fair. Liberté, égalité, fraternité!

I have to object, though to your idea to reduce commission to 1% each. Best numbers I can find, show a median income of $54,000/year. Reducing to $18,000/year just doesn't seem like a liveable wage, at least not here in our MP.

In response to "Central Menlo", let's be sure to compare apples to apples. I'm talking about realtors in this area, where I have trouble believing the median income would be $54,000/year. Selling one home for, say $1.5M yields a 3% commission of $45,000. Let's say half of that goes to the realty company, leaving $22,500 (I'm no realtor, so I have no idea how it is split inside the company). Then this median realtor would only be selling 2-3 homes per year. That doesn't sound like a very busy realtor to me.

Steve, Can't say how much time it takes the median Realtor to drum up 2-3 sales but I bet, given the upside opportunity, that there are many, many agents chasing every deal and that may take months of marketing and work. The few with their excellent reputation probably make tons. Not so much for the rest. Depending on the market, the commission is probably negotiated, too.