So why do many Americans continue to pay such high commissions relative to other countries? According to the independent study by Mark Nadel at the AE Brookings Joint Center, A Critical Assessment of the Standard, Traditional, Residential Real Estate Broker Commission Rate Structure, the real estate commission structure is a poor way to compensate a real estate agent for their time. Not only does it create a poor incentive for the agent to work for the best possible price for their client, there is often a complete disconnect between the time invested by the agent, quality of service and the amount paid by the client.

Discount Realtors and flat rate real estate companies offer alternatives to the traditional commission rate based system. With a discount real estate broker you can get the same bundle of services for less than the prevalent rate in your market. With flat rate, or limited-service brokers you can pick and choose the services you want on an a la carte basis. Either way you can stand to save thousands of dollars in fees, but with flat fee brokers you pay only for the services you use.