Imagine the following scenario:  A couple buy a home for $450,000, live in it for 12 years and then sell it for $685,000 to a lovely lady buying her first home. Did those sellers write themselves a check for $685,000? Or did the lovely lady provide them with the funds to close?

As importantly, did the commissions paid to the agents who helped secure the sale, a seller's agent to market the property, and a buyers' agent who worked with this lady for many months educating her on the market, various properties, neighborhoods, bidding, financing options, inspections, etc - get 'funded' by the actions of the buyer or the seller? 

Some might argue that without the buyer, no commissions could have been paid to a seller's agent. We all know NO commissions would have been paid to anyone - even if it had been on the market for many months - had a sale not taken place. The seller again would have been liable for zero cost to pay for commissions, even after extensive efforts by their seller's agent. But the check for $685,000 was delivered to the table by a BUYER (maybe with the help of a bank)....not the seller.

Maybe another way of looking at exactly WHO is paying that commission at closing? The reality is it comes out of the proceeds of the transaction, something that is shared between two parties directly responsible for making it happen (when a buyer's agent is involved) and only if it happens. Either way the buyer is bringing the money to the closing table, not the seller. Or the seller's agent. Everything up to that point is free of charge and without fiscal obligation.

As of late, maybe we can officially start truly celebrating the invaluable actions of the buyer's agent?