How high did you say that commission was?

Wow... I just got an email from a Temecula broker with listings there and in San Diego County that are offering 3% commission PLUS a bonus of 15k to the buyer's agent with an accepted offer. For the houses around 500k, that's about 6% just to the buyer's agent, and for the cheapest house at 345k, that's about 7.35%. How can this broker stay in the black? Is he charging 8% overall and maybe even higher? Hmm, is it that he needs to have a bunch of houses sell close to list price, so that he can show other sellers that he can still get top dollar during a downturn in the real estate cycle?

At any rate, it just goes to how how rare buyers have become. If you have a reason to move to Temecula or Murrieta and have a good down payment, those are good places to go as they have terrific schools, newer neighborhoods, and are quite pleasant. Just don't do it if you have to commute to San Diego regularly, however, unless you have a company car, company gas card, and a nanny.