Of the home sellers who asked their real estate agent for a lower commission, 93% got one. Only 33% of sellers asked.
The 6% commission is treated by sellers as a posted price. It has never been one, and the survey found that the people who treat it as negotiable are almost never refused.
"So simply asking is the most effective strategy and most people don't think either that negotiating is possible so they don't ask."
Steve Niccastro is a writer and editor at Clever Real Estate, which surveyed 500 Americans who had sold a home in the previous two years about what they paid in fees and whether they tried to negotiate, and which publishes average commission rates by local market.
The full segment is covered here so you can skip it.
Here are the 5 lessons that matter.
👤 Guest: Steve Niccastro, a writer and editor at Clever Real Estate, which surveyed 500 recent home sellers on what they paid in commission
🎙️ Host: Chuck Jaffe, financial journalist and host of Money Life, who has written books on choosing and working with advisers
🧩 Other segments: Ryan Redfern of Shadowridge Asset Management, and Eric Zwick of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business
📰 Published: 15 September 2026 on YouTube (Money Life with Chuck Jaffe)
🔴 YouTube | 🟣 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 Episode page | ⏱️ length not available
Key Takeaways
Asking is the whole strategy: 93% of sellers who asked for a commission reduction got one, and 7% were turned down
Of those who got a cut, 90% got at least half a percentage point and 45% got a full point or more
Two thirds of sellers never try
37% believed the rate was already fair; 35% did not know the rate could be negotiated at all
A full percentage point is just over $4,300 on a median-priced American home
Buyers of the service do less shopping than the stakes justify — 65% of sellers interviewed exactly one agent
The leverage is highest where the sale is easiest, which is the opposite of what sellers assume
A $500,000 home at 6% pays the agents $30,000; a million-dollar home pays $60,000
The 2024 NAR settlement moved the buyer's-agent commission out of the listing and into the contract, but sellers are still paying it
1. 93% Who Asked, Got It
Jaffe introduced the segment as the show's regular look at survey research, and said the result had stunned him: more than 90% of home sellers who asked for a lower commission received a discount. Niccastro's first words were that he was very surprised too.
The awkwardness is the point. Niccastro said it is hard to go to an agent and ask for a discount, because the agent's answer is that they are working hard for you and should not have to discount their services. The standard commission he named is 6%, which can be split between more than one agent.
"So really like what we found is that 93% of people who simply just asked their agent for a reduction got it and only 7% were turned down. So simply asking is the most effective strategy and most people don't think either that negotiating is possible so they don't ask."
The discounts are not token. "Our study found that 90% of those sellers who asked for a reduction got at least half a percentage point off. And 45% got a full point or more off."
"So, for some context, on a medium price home in the United States, a 1 percentage point, a full percentage point reduction equals just over $4,300 in commission savings."
His framing is return on time spent: a couple of minutes of conversation for that saving is, in his word, profitable.
"The other side of this is what's the worst that can happen? They can say no." If it makes you uncomfortable, he said, you move to the next agent.
Jaffe's own read is that a seller starting from 6% has a lot of leverage, that most agents will not refuse half a percentage point, and that the reason is the relationship — they want the client and they want a happy client who refers them on.
2. Why Only 1 in 3 Asks
Jaffe asked whether the 90% figure was really a symptom of the market — with little housing stock for sale, he would have expected discounts to be harder to get, not easier.
The behavior, not the market, is what the survey measured. Among sellers who used an agent, only 33% tried to negotiate, 56% never tried at all, and the other 11% used a broker charging a fixed rate, so there was nothing to negotiate.
The two reasons sellers gave for not trying were roughly equal in size: 37% said they thought the rate was already fair, and 35% did not know they could negotiate.
"So there is this belief out there for some reason that some people still think that rates are fixed."
"Like it's never been fixed. It's always been negotiable."
Jaffe offered a mechanism for why a tight market might cut the other way: an agent who does not win the listing can still find the buyer and take half the commission, so the pressure to win every listing is lower — but more listings still means more money, and in a market with few houses to list, willingness to negotiate is how one agent stands out from the next.
3. Nobody Shops for an Agent
Jaffe said he has written books on choosing and working with financial advisers, real estate agents included, and that most people never talk to more than one.
The survey backs him: 65% of sellers interviewed exactly one agent and signed with them, 27% interviewed two, and 8% talked to three or more.
"When you think about what the stakes are in a home sale, the number one thing you should shop around for is the person who's going to be selling your home."
Part of the explanation is where the agent comes from — "45% find their agent through a personal connection." A referral from a trusted source, Niccastro said, produces a feeling that this is the person, and the search stops there.
Jaffe's rule is to always include one candidate you did not get from a friend, because you have no idea how the friend picked theirs — a good experience may have been luck. "So, why would you hire your mother's real estate agent?" His comparison was that you would not hire your mother's decorator either.
Niccastro added a matching problem on top of the trust problem: the referral may come from someone who sold a multi-million-dollar house on a beach while you are selling a typical suburban house, and an agent's specialty and usual price band may not fit your sale.
Jaffe said familiarity with the neighborhood is never a bad thing, and gave his own case — when he and his wife sell, one of the agents in the mix will be someone whose mother was an agent and who grew up diagonally behind them, so she knows both the neighborhood and what it is like to grow up there.
4. Where the Leverage Sits
Jaffe asked whether the difficulty of the sale changes the answer — a house in move-in condition that will be listed for five days, against one that has been on the market twice and sat for 45 days without selling.
Niccastro said there is a type of seller and a type of property that gets a discount, and it is the easy sale. A home in move-in-ready condition, in a popular neighborhood with a lot of demand and limited inventory, is a fast win for the agent, and that is where the seller has leverage.
The second source of leverage is the size of the check. "So, for example, a $500,000 home selling at a 6% rate is 30,000 in total commission. A million-dollar home selling at 6% is 60,000 in commission. And going lower than 6% certainly seems doable on a property like that."
His conclusion is that a home considered high value for its own market should expect a rate reduction, because the same percentage is simply more money to the agent.
Jaffe's counter-case was the one the agent makes: on a house that has failed to sell twice and needs real work to move, the agent has an argument for why they are not discounting.
5. What the NAR Deal Changed
Jaffe walked the audience through the history. Every agent used to represent the seller, because the seller paid them, even when a buyer thought the agent was working for them. Buyer's agents exist now, sellers are no longer required to offer them a commission, and skipping it could make a house less attractive to show.
Niccastro named the specific change: "So, the biggest change with the NAR settlement lawsuit in 2024, one of the biggest changes was that the buyer agent commissions no longer advertised on the multiple listing service."
Before the settlement, a listing carried the buyer-broker compensation rate on the multiple listing service — 2.5% or 3% — where any agent could see it before showing the house. That disclosure is gone.
What replaced it is private negotiation. "Most sellers are still paying the buyer's agent. It's pretty rare for the buyer to have to cover their own agents commission."
The money has not moved; the process has. In his description it is now handled behind the scenes, in the contracts, rather than posted on the listing.
Jaffe's framing of the risk was the buyer's agent who asks why they would bring a client to a house where they are not getting paid.
Bonus Insights
Niccastro's closing tip was a tool rather than an argument: the firm publishes average commission rates by market. "You could search by your market, see what's typical in your area." Knowing the local norm, he said, is itself leverage if you think you are being charged too much.
Jaffe's verdict for listeners was that the sellers who did not know commissions could be negotiated were the ones missing out, and that anyone who listens to the show now knows to at least consider asking.
The segment is the show's recurring survey slot, which Jaffe uses for research and polling data on what people are actually doing with their money.
Niccastro's bottom line is that the 6% commission is a starting price rather than a rate: almost everyone who asks for less gets it, the reduction is usually at least half a percentage point, and the seller with the easiest, most valuable house has the most room to ask.
Products, Companies & Tools Mentioned
Clever Real Estate (Niccastro's employer, which surveyed 500 recent home sellers on commissions and publishes average rates by local market)
National Association of Realtors (The 2024 settlement of the lawsuit against it removed buyer-agent compensation from multiple listing service listings)
Books & Resources Mentioned
Clever Real Estate's home-seller commission survey (The study behind the segment — 500 Americans who sold a home in the previous two years, on what they paid and whether they negotiated)
Clever Real Estate's average commission rates by market (The lookup Niccastro pointed sellers to for what is typical in their own area)
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