Found 8 blog entries tagged as Buyer Education.

DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer & Seller Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • August 2026

Updated: August 2026 • 12 min read

The Short Answer

In most Utah home sales, the seller still pays both agents — but it is now a choice, not a default.

The money comes out of the seller’s proceeds at closing, split between the two brokerages, and the buyer rarely writes a check for it. What changed in August 2024 is that the seller’s contribution to the buyer’s agent is negotiated case by case instead of published in the MLS. And the buyer now signs an agreement stating what their agent is owed — which means they see the number for the first time.

This is the most confused question…

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DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • August 2026

Updated: August 2026 • 12 min read • Educational content, not financial advice

You just received roughly $8,000 back at closing. You have three realistic options, and the gap between the best and worst outcome is over a quarter of a million dollars.

We previously worked through using a rebate to buy down your mortgage rate. A reader asked the obvious follow-up: what if you invested it in an S&P 500 index fund instead?

So we ran all three scenarios. The answer is genuinely surprising, and one finding complicates the case we made in that earlier article. We are publishing it anyway, because a comparison that…

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DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • August 2026

Updated: August 2026 • 10 min read

If you are moving to Utah from Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, Oregon, or Tennessee, there is a way to save money on your home purchase that was illegal where you came from.

It is called a buyer commission rebate. Your agent’s brokerage returns a share of the commission it earns directly to you at closing. In Utah, DiscountAgent.com rebates 50% — on a median-priced Salt Lake County home, roughly $8,000 back in your pocket.

In nine states, a broker who offered you that money could face disciplinary action for it. The U.S. Department…

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DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • July 2026

Updated: July 2026 • 11 min read

Most buyers who receive a commission rebate take it as cash at closing. That is the least valuable thing you can do with it.

With 30-year mortgage rates hovering around 6.1% in 2026, that same rebate can be applied to discount points instead — permanently lowering your interest rate for the life of the loan. On a median-priced Salt Lake County home, that turns roughly $8,188 into about $47,000 in interest you never pay.

Same money. Same house. Roughly six times the benefit — if you stay long enough. That last condition matters enormously, and this guide covers exactly…

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DiscountAgent.com Blog • Seller Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • July 2026

Updated: July 2026 • 13 min read

You already know real estate commissions are expensive. What most people do not know is that a growing number of brokerages tack on a separate charge on top of the commission — typically $400 to $600, sometimes more than $1,000 — and often disclose it late in the process, when you have the least leverage to refuse.

A report released in July 2026 by the Consumer Policy Center, a Washington, D.C. consumer watchdog group, estimates these charges could cost American home buyers and sellers close to $2 billion a year. The report is titled “Junk Fees Charged to Both Home Sellers…

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DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • June 2026

Updated: June 2026 • Originally published June 2025 • 14 min read

When you buy a home in Utah, your buyer’s agent earns a commission—typically 2.5%–3% of the purchase price. On a $600,000 home, that’s $15,000–$18,000. At most brokerages, the agent keeps all of it. At DiscountAgent.com, you get approximately half of it back at closing—real money, in your pocket, on the day you get your keys.

This isn’t a gimmick or a teaser rate. It’s a business model. I’ve been rebating 50% of the buyer agent commission since 2006—on every purchase, every loan type, every price point from condos to million-dollar estates.…

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DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • August 2026

Updated: August 2026 • 14 min read • Educational content, not financial advice

A 50% buyer commission rebate on a median Salt Lake County home is roughly $8,188. Most buyers apply it to closing costs without thinking about it, because that is what the lender suggests.

Sometimes that is exactly right. Often it is not. We ran the actual return on five different uses, and the ranking is not what a real estate blog usually tells you — the highest-return option for a large share of buyers has nothing to do with the house at all.

Below: the five uses ranked by what the math says, who each one actually fits, and…

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Are Agent Commission Rebates Legal

DiscountAgent.com Blog • Buyer Education

By Aaron Peters • Broker / Owner, DiscountAgent.com • August 2026

Updated: August 2026 • Sources: Utah Administrative Code, Utah Code, Utah Division of Real Estate • 12 min read

The Short Answer

Yes. Commission rebates are legal in Utah.

Utah Administrative Code R162-2f-401 expressly permits a principal broker or affiliated licensee to give an inducement gift — including a share of commission — to a buyer or seller, and states that doing so is not an illegal sharing of commission. There is one condition attached, and it matters: the arrangement has to comply with the underwriting guidelines of any loan in the transaction.

Governing Rule

…

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