Who is actually supposed to pay the coordinator fee?

Itemized every time. If it's inside a commission percentage I can't tell what I'm buying, and I can't compare two agents. A $425 line I can look at and decide about.

@meridian the flip side is that itemizing invites a negotiation on a $425 item while the several-thousand-dollar item goes unexamined. I've watched myself do that. I'll argue about the admin fee and wave through the commission.

Three separate things are getting mixed together here, and the disclosure question is the one with teeth.

Who bears the cost economically is a matter of the agreement between the agent or investor and their coordinator. The TC's contract is with whoever engaged them, so the principal owes the fee regardless of who ultimately funds it. Passing the cost to a client is a separate agreement between the agent and the client, and it has to be in the representation agreement or an addendum, not introduced for the first time on a settlement statement. Whether a brokerage may charge a client an administrative or transaction fee at all, and how it must be disclosed, is governed by state real estate rules and brokerage policy, so confirm the practice in your state with your broker or an attorney rather than assuming the local custom is permitted everywhere.

On the economics, the fee is small relative to the transaction and does not usually move a decision on its own. What moves is capacity. A principal paying $400 a file out of gross commission is buying back roughly eight to twelve hours of administrative time per closing, which is the whole argument for the role. If that time gets reinvested in finding deals, the fee pays for itself at fairly low volume. If it doesn't, you've bought a convenience and should price it as one.

@canton, the thing to look at on your estimate is not the amount. It's whether the charge appears in a document you signed before the estimate. If it doesn't, ask your agent to show you where you agreed to it.

I didn't know to ask this, but the thread answered it anyway. I assumed the coordinator was an employee of the title company. She isn't, she's hired by the agent. That changes who she's working for.

@ember yes, and that's the part worth holding onto. The coordinator's client is the person who pays her. She's coordinating your file, she isn't representing you.

$425 on a purchase where my closing costs ran about $9,400 is 4.5 percent of costs and roughly a rounding error against price. I'd pay it and not think about it. What I won't pay is an unitemized admin fee that turns out to be $1,200 of which $425 is a coordinator and the rest is undefined.