Brokers Get More for Own Homes

Real estate brokers get better prices when they sell their own homes than when they sell clients’ homes--an average of 3.1% more, according to a new study.

The study--which involved researchers from Penn State, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the Florida Atlantic University--examined the sale of 21,235 houses in Fort Worth, Texas, between 1993 and 1995. Nearly 400 houses were owned by brokers.

The data included age, square footage and location of the houses. The listings also detailed the number of bathrooms, when a house was sold and whether someone lived there at the time of the sale.

On average, brokers’ houses were listed at prices 3% higher than the rest of the group. Yet they sold just as quickly, leading researchers to assume the brokers must have worked harder to sell their own.