Brokers fee question and advice on being represented
Hello! I’ve been looking at commercial Real estate as an investment opportunity and was recently approached by an agent to represent me. 

Agent is from a big company and honestly sounds good but I was always under the impression that the seller pays all the fees and also did not know 1 year agreements usually need to be signed. This agreement has commission split between the buyer and seller. 

Is this pretty normal and are these big company guys usually good at finding the investment opportunities? Any pros or cons ? 

I’m still at the beginning stages of this venture so I am just beginning my research as my day job is unrelated. 

Any help is appreciated. 

Thanks!
[{"id": "i4qvl3z", "text": "There are situations where let\u2019s say for simplistic reasons they represent you buying a $1,000,000 commercial property and the commission is 5% which is 2.5% to each party. Could be 6% depending on area and owner and could be a mixture of both if the owner has a deal with his agent on a smaller split maybe because they do property management and give their clients a deal on commissions while the owner has to pay full commissions split to buyers agent or other various reasons. Let\u2019s say 5% though for the sake of this. The property sells for $950,000 and that $50,000 grand gets split between both parties. Technically the your paying for your agent and the sellers agents commissions. That\u2019s what might be happening here.\n\nI\u2019m more familiar with commercial leasing splits and in our leases in SoCal the owner is paying the commissions out. Read your contract closely and make sure they are not trying to get double commission out of you and the owner but for a big brokerage probably not the case. Commissions are pretty localized so it depends in your area.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i4qwawu", "text": "Fees/agreements depend on market and what you're looking for.\n\nOne year seems lengthy to me (as a NNN broker). Are you able to terminate it at any time or after 15 day notice?\n\nFees are paid by seller - but out of the check you cut as a buyer so fees are always baked into the deal. The % will depend on market and deal size. If the broker has off-market opportunities then they should be able to do the deal directly with you and name their price.\n\nIf they are simply going to represent you as a buyer for product on the market, then they just split the fee the seller is paying (also depends on what you're looking to buy).", "replies": [{"id": "i4qy5kj", "text": "Oh I see. This agreement is 3 percent and I need to ask about termination of the agreement because I do not see it believe it or not ! It does seem lengthy. I might need to negotiate that if possible.", "replies": [{"id": "i4rkx0i", "text": "6 months exclusive on a buyer rep agreement with either 15 or 30 days notice to terminate is fair / market.\n\nThey can always submit entities for holdover whereby you owe a commission for say 90 days if you close a transaction with someone they brought you during their agreement, you terminated and they submitted that third party in a holdover.\n\nWhat size centers are you looking for? That impacts the size of the fee they should be asking for...", "replies": [], "depth": 3}], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i4r4sl7", "text": "Have a lot of thoughts here but need more specifics.  What asset type and size are you looking at?  What kind of market?", "replies": [{"id": "i4rb0lo", "text": "Texas market and looking at shopping centers mostly", "replies": [], "depth": 2}], "depth": 1}, {"id": "i4s0dsd", "text": "Personally, I would have an open agreement with multiple tenant reps / buyer agents in different companies. They will get paid if they find you a deal that closes, but there's no reason to limit your relationship to only one broker as a buyer. I'm a principle on several brokers' email blast lists whenever they have commercial deals that meet my criteria. It costs me nothing.", "replies": [], "depth": 1}]