How the 70/30 split works

What the spread is

The spread is the room between what you contracted the property at and what our buyer pays for it. If you tied it up at $100,000 and it sells at $118,000, the spread is $18,000. That is the number the split applies to, not the sale price and not your assignment fee.

Seventy to you, thirty to us

You keep 70% of the spread. On an $18,000 spread that is $12,600 to you and $5,400 to us. Our 30% covers running the disposition: putting it in front of the buyer list, the negotiating, the paperwork and the closing. You keep the assignment in your name.

Why a split rather than a flat fee

Because a flat fee would pay us the same whether the deal sold for $110,000 or $125,000, and you would be the only one with a reason to push. A percentage means the harder we negotiate, the more both sides make. It is the same reason your share is the larger one: you found it and you tied it up.

When it is paid

At closing, out of the settlement statement, like everything else. Nothing is owed up front, nothing is invoiced afterwards, and you do not send us money - the title company disburses both sides at the same time.

If the deal does not close

You owe nothing. If we cannot move it, you still hold the contract and you are free to take it anywhere else. That is the whole arrangement: we are paid out of a spread that exists, or we are not paid.

A worked example

Say you tie up a house at $92,000. It needs about $30,000 of work and comps around $185,000 finished. We take it to the list and a buyer comes in at $112,000. The spread is $20,000. You take $14,000 and we take $6,000, both disbursed by the title company on the same settlement statement. If that same buyer had only come to $104,000, the spread would be $12,000 and your share $8,400 - which is why the entry price matters more than anything else you do.

What is not in the spread

Closing costs, recording, title work and any credits negotiated to the buyer come off before there is a spread to split. So does anything the seller extracts late in the process. The number we split is what is actually left between the two contracts, not the gap you hoped for when you signed.

Why we tell you early if it will not work

A deal we cannot move at your number earns us nothing, so there is no reason for us to sit on it and let the clock run. If the price is wrong you will hear that in the first day, while there is still time to go back to the seller. That is worth more to you than politeness.