What’s the Average Oklahoma Real Estate Commission Rate?

Does the agent get to keep the full commission?

Although the seller usually pays the entire commission, the listing agent, who is representing the seller in a transaction, doesn’t keep it all. Part of their commission will go toward marketing your property with professional photography, open houses, offline marketing, and more.

“All that stuff is coming out of my pocket upfront, and that’s whether the house sells or not,” says Rice.

The commission is also typically split 50/50 with the buyer’s agent to compensate them for bringing a buyer to the sale and coordinating the buy-side of the transaction. So, around 2.5%-3% goes to the listing agent, and the other 2.5%-3% goes to the buyer’s agent.

Both the listing agent and the buyer’s agent will then share a percentage of their commission with their sponsoring broker.

These split rates can vary; however, it’s common for the listing agent to give their broker anywhere from 30%-50% of their commission, depending on the agent’s level of experience, their market size, and brokerage agreement.

How is the commission divided between agents?

The commission that’s paid by the seller will typically be split among each agent and the brokerages through which they hang their real estate license. Let’s say you sell your home for $250,000 with a 6% commission rate. You pay a commission of $15,000, and each agent has a 70/30 split agreement with their brokerage. Here’s how that might look:

• Listing agent: $5,250 (70% of their $7,500 commission share)
• Listing broker: $2,250 (30% of their $7,500 commission share)
• Buyer’s agent: $5,250 (70% of their $7,500 commission share)
• Buyer’s broker: $2,250 (30% of their $7,500 commission share)

Are Oklahoma commission rates negotiable?

You can negotiate real estate agent commission rates, but don’t be surprised if your agent holds firm on how much they charge. A Consumer Federation of America report found that only 27% of agents are willing to negotiate the commission.

One reason agents often don’t lower their rate is that it may reduce their ability to negotiate a higher sale price for the seller. An agent’s services often include photography and pricing analysis, so a lower commission could also translate into a smaller marketing budget for your property, an inaccurate list price, fewer home promotions, and a lower likelihood of selling.

Overall, commissions in Oklahoma are negotiable but do your research first. When asking an agent to lower their pay, you’re limiting the pool of agents willing to work with you. And the downsides to working with a low-commission agent can be steep. Without a top Oklahoma agent in your corner, you could dramatically undersell your home, have a rough selling experience, or fail to sell the home at all.

What is included in a real estate agent’s commission?

A full-service real estate agent in Oklahoma will provide a high level of offerings that go toward giving you a great selling experience and boosting exposure to your home.

An agent’s services fall into a few main categories:

Guidance on pre-sale improvements

Agents see a lot of houses in their Oklahoma markets. They will have an eye for the small but impactful improvements you could make to help it sell for more. The best agents will go above and beyond to help their clients get the job done.

“For my listings, I provide a home stager for free,” says Rice. “We have her look through the lens of a camera to see how it’s going to photograph and she gives them tips, like rearranging furniture and whatnot.”

Pricing strategy

An agent will put together a comparative market analysis (CMA) in the form of a thick packet featuring charts, facts, figures, and photographs of houses. The analysis will show you what your home is worth based on comparable sales in the neighborhood, market trends, and local price per square foot. This key tool helps you set a realistic price that can attract offers right off the bat in a fraction of the time it would take a non-professional to determine.

“You don’t want to price [the home] too low because you want to be able to garner as much as you can for your client; but if you get it too high, then you’re not going to get the traffic that you need, and that’s going to hurt you in the long run,” says Rice. “It’s kind of a fine line.”

Marketing services

As part of their commission, at a minimum, Oklahoma agents should offer expert home prep and staging, professional photography, marketing flyers and pamphlets, direct mail, automatic postings of your listing on major home search sites, local advertisements, exclusive previews for other brokers, and open house coordination. Advanced agents may also offer the development of a virtual tour.

“We do a lot of video tours,” says Rice. “We do Facebook marketing. We have marketing with Google. We do open houses and pay to promote those. We even send postcards to surrounding homes to say, ‘Hey, this house is coming up, do you want to pick your neighbor?’”

Offer management and negotiations

When you receive one or multiple offers, an agent will help you determine the strength of the offer and work with you to proceed with responding to buyers. They’ll advise on whether to accept, reject, or make a counteroffer while putting together offer spreadsheets to identify the best offer in bidding war situations.

If a buyer requests repairs after the inspection, an agent will help you push back where appropriate and advise on when to concede. Should the appraised value be lower than the contract price, an agent can help you determine whether to ask the buyer to make up the difference or if you should lower your price.

“I always say, getting [the home] under contract is the easy thing,” says Rice. “Getting it to closing is what’s hard. You have to be experienced to know how to negotiate, to know how to anticipate possible problems that could come up, and to keep everything going smoothly until we get to closing.”

Market knowledge and neighborhood expertise

Great Oklahoma real estate agents know what local buyers seek in homes and which of your home’s attributes to highlight. An agent will skillfully incorporate key features into your home’s listing description and immediately be able to recognize what makes your house or the surrounding area special.

“It’s not so much that you need to have sold in that particular neighborhood before, you just need to know what the trends are in the area,” says Rice. “We’re going to have access to all the information of what the local homes have sold for, what the timeframe is that they’ve sold in, and whether people are offering incentives to their buyers.”

What is a fair real estate commission in Oklahoma?

As noted above, the average commission rate in most Oklahoma markets is between 5%-6% to hire a full-service real estate agent. This rate should mean you have an agent who is dedicated to selling your home for the best possible price, who is available and communicative, and who is willing to shepherd the transaction from start to finish. If an agent isn’t willing to offer all or the majority of services listed above, you should interview more candidates.

What if my Oklahoma house doesn’t sell?

Real estate agents only get paid commissions if and when your home sells successfully. Most real estate contracts include an exclusive right to sell, which gives the real estate agent the sole rights to market the property, list the property on MLS, and receive the commission if the sale closes in a determined time frame. If your house remains on the market beyond the time period outlined in the listing agreement, you are not obligated to pay your agent.

However, keep in mind that your listing agreement may contain a protection clause, also known as a “brokerage protection clause,” “safety clause,” “extension clause,” or “tail provision.” The protection clause states that if a buyer who the listing agent introduced to the property purchases the property after the listing agreement expires, the seller still must pay the agent a commission.

“So say I show someone your house on Friday, but the listing agreement expires on Monday, and then the following Friday, that buyer says they want to buy the house,” says Rice. “I would still get that commission. I would step in and guide that buyer through the closing. I usually will do an extension to the listing agreement at that time.”

How can you avoid paying Realtor fees?

There are two main ways to avoid paying Realtor® fees. You can either sell your Oklahoma home without an agent’s help, or sell it directly to a cash buyer without ever going on the market.

For Sale By Owner

Without a real estate agent, you’re responsible for preparing your home for sale, marketing, negotiating, and navigating legal and financial documents. When selling a house on your own, you’ll need to hire an attorney, at a minimum, to make sure the paperwork is right.

Typically, For Sale By Owner (FSBO) makes the most sense if you already have a buyer. As of 2022, 50% of FSBO sellers knew their buyer.

This indicates that while the FSBO route is rare, making up just 10% of sellers, it’s even more rare to forgo a real estate agent’s help when you don’t already have a buyer lined up and ready to go. In addition, according to a 2022 National Association of Realtors report, the median FSBO house sold for $225,000, compared to a median of $345,000 for agent-assisted sales. That’s a significant loss of proceeds in an effort to save 5.5% on commissions.

“Especially in this day and age, with For Sale By Owner, they don’t know who’s coming into their house,” says Rice. “When an agent is handling the transaction, any potential buyers are vetted. We know if they can qualify for a loan and are actively searching for a house, and not just trying to case your house or something like that. Also, it’s more than just putting the sign out and getting your house under contract. You have to be able to go through stuff like the appraisal process and the inspection process. There’s a lot of things that can go wrong or a lot of things that can come up during that time.”

Sell to a cash buyer

Cash buyers — including iBuyers, investors, and house-buying companies — are individuals or entities that purchase your home outright, without the need for lender financing. These buyers typically make off-market purchases and can provide speed and convenience to sellers.

“We’re still seeing a lot of cash buyers, especially people that are moving in from out of state,” says Rice. “A lot of those folks have already sold their home and want to relocate to middle America.”

Just be aware that the price offered by most cash buyers may not match what you could receive on the open market with the help of a top agent.

If you’re interested in a cash sale, you can receive a no-obligation offer through HomeLight’s Simple Sale platform, with no hidden fees or agent commission. Simple Sale connects you to the largest network of cash buyers in the U.S.

Now you know how Oklahoma agent commissions work

Sellers pay real estate commissions in exchange for an agent’s expertise and services throughout the sale process. If you’re worried about the cost of the commission, consider that targeted upgrades, stellar marketing, and savvy negotiations can help you maximize your sale price. With a performance-proven Oklahoma agent to guide you, you also avoid the stress of navigating this complex process without professional oversight.

The key is finding a quality agent who provides the highest amount of value for their commission fee. In fact, our transaction data shows that the top 5% of agents in Oklahoma sell homes for as much as 10% more than the average agent.

HomeLight can connect you with top Oklahoma agents with experience tailored to your needs. Whenever you’re ready to get started, HomeLight would be happy to put your commission worries to rest by introducing you to several agents in your area who are well worth it.

Writer McCoy Worthington contributed to this story.

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