FSBO Commission: What You Pay and What You Offer
Selling by owner removes one commission and leaves the other as a choice. An FSBO commission is really only half a commission: the listing side goes entirely, replaced by a fixed fee if you want the MLS. The buyer side became a number you decide rather than inherit, and this page is about how to decide it.
The two halves of an FSBO commission decision
A conventional Florida listing agreement sets a total, commonly five to six per cent, which the listing broker then shares with whichever broker brings the buyer. The split is usually even, though nothing requires it to be, and the seller rarely sees how it was divided. Sellers used to experience that as one number, because it arrived as one number on one agreement. It was always two decisions wearing a single figure, and the 2024 settlement pulled them apart. Understanding the split is most of what you need here, since selling by owner removes only one of the two.
What FSBO commission means for the listing side
It goes to zero. Nobody is marketing the house for a percentage, because you are doing that work. What you may still want is the MLS, and only a licensed broker can file there, so a flat fee listing buys the filing without the percentage. Ours is $99 for three months, $295 for six, and $495 for the full-service option. On a $400,000 house that replaces $10,000 to $12,000 with a figure under five hundred. No part of that saving depends on negotiating anything.
What the 2024 settlement actually changed
Three things, from August 2024. Offers of buyer-broker compensation may no longer be published on the MLS. Such an offer is no longer a condition of listing on it. And buyers must sign a written agreement with their own agent before being toured through homes. The practical effect for a seller is that the buyer-side figure stopped being an inherited convention and became a term you negotiate, in the open, like the price.
An FSBO commission can be nothing at all
That is now explicitly permitted and some sellers do it. What happens next is the honest question. A buyer under a written agreement with their agent owes that agent a fee regardless, so if you offer nothing the buyer has to find it themselves, usually by asking you for a concession instead. The money does not disappear. It moves to a different line on the settlement statement and gets negotiated there, under time pressure, rather than agreed calmly in advance. That is the real cost of offering nothing, and it is not always smaller.
Why most Florida sellers still offer something
Because of who controls the showings. An agent with a qualified buyer and six houses to choose from is deciding which ones get seen this weekend, and a listing offering nothing competes for that slot against listings offering something. The effect is not that agents refuse to show your house. It is that it sits lower on a list you never see. Whether that matters depends on how much competition your price bracket has. In a bracket with four similar listings it matters. In one with none it barely registers.
How to decide the FSBO commission you offer
Treat it as part of the price rather than as a fee. Work out your net at the price you want, try it with nothing offered, with one per cent, with two and a half, and see which net you can live with. Then look at how many comparable listings are sitting unsold in your bracket. A thin market with motivated buyers supports offering less. A crowded one with slow sales supports offering more, because attention rather than price is the scarce thing. Run the net at each figure before you decide which argument applies to you.
Where the figure gets communicated now
Not on the MLS, and not in the public remarks either, because that is the same prohibition wearing a different hat. In practice it is conveyed when an agent enquires, or offered as a concession in the contract negotiation. Put whatever you decide in writing before a showing happens. Then an agent who brings a buyer knows the position, and you are not inventing it under pressure at the offer stage.
What a buyer agent does for it
Finds the house, arranges the viewing, advises on price, writes the offer, manages the inspection and the renegotiation, and keeps their buyer and the lender moving to closing. Some of that is work you benefit from directly, because a buyer with competent representation is a buyer more likely to actually close. That is the argument for the figure being worth something to you. It is also a better argument than the one about access to showings, because it survives the question of whether agents really steer buyers at all.
When the buyer has no agent at all
It happens on FSBO sales more than elsewhere, and it saves the figure entirely. It also means nobody is explaining the contract, the timelines or the inspection period to the other side, and that tends to slow everything down. Be scrupulous about not advising them, because you are not their representative and you do not want to be treated as if you were. Point them at the closing agent, or suggest they consult a lawyer. Both answers are better than explaining the inspection period to somebody who may later say you advised them.
FSBO commission arithmetic worth doing once
On a $400,000 sale: a traditional listing at five and a half per cent total is $22,000. Selling by owner with a flat fee and two and a half per cent offered to a buyer agent is roughly $10,300. With nothing offered it is under five hundred, plus whatever concession you end up conceding instead. The spread between those is the real subject of this page, and the middle option is what most sellers land on.
What does not change
Documentary stamp tax at $0.70 per $100. The owner title policy, at a promulgated rate the state sets. Settlement and recording fees. Prorated taxes. Any estoppel letter. Your payoff. None of those are affected by how the listing was filed or what anybody is paid, which is worth knowing because sellers sometimes expect going by owner to reduce the closing costs as well. It reduces one line, decisively, and leaves the rest exactly where it was.
The FSBO commission decision in one paragraph
Pay a fixed fee for the MLS filing instead of a listing percentage, because that part is a clear saving with no trade-off beyond doing the work yourself. Then set the buyer-side figure deliberately, with your net in front of you and your competition in mind, and put it in writing. That is the whole of it. The first decision is easy and large. The second is genuinely a judgement call and smaller than people think.
Commission: common questions
Do I pay any commission if I sell by owner?
No listing commission, because nobody is listing it for a percentage. If you want the MLS, a broker has to file it, and a flat fee covers that: $99 for three months, $295 for six, $495 full-service. What you offer a buyer agent is separate and optional.
Do I have to offer a buyer agent commission in Florida?
No. Since August 2024 it is neither published on the MLS nor a condition of listing there. Most sellers still offer something, because the agent holding a qualified buyer decides which houses get shown this weekend.
How much should I offer a buyer agent?
Work your net at the price you want with nothing, one per cent and two and a half, then look at how many comparable listings in your bracket are sitting unsold. Crowded brackets argue for offering more, because attention is what is scarce.
Can I advertise the buyer agent fee on the MLS?
No, and not in the public remarks either. It is conveyed when an agent enquires, or negotiated as a concession in the contract. Decide it and put it in writing before showings start, rather than at the offer stage.
What if the buyer has no agent?
You save the figure entirely, and the sale usually moves slower because nobody is explaining the contract to the other side. Avoid advising them yourself: point them to the closing agent or suggest they speak to a lawyer.