Many of the nation's largest real estate firms still do not publish the share of the commission paid to agents who work with homebuyers, leaving buyers to fend for themselves.

Buyers can sometimes get a better deal when they know in advance what their so-called buy-side agents are being paid, says Stephen Brobeck of the Consumer Federation of America. If you know your agent's cut, it's possible to bargain for a lower rate or even ask for a rebate at closing. But if you have no clue what they're being paid, you are going into the transaction with blinders on.

Perhaps more importantly, if you understand who gets what, you can avoid being shown only the houses with the highest commission rates.

"Steering is the real problem," Brobeck told me. "'Steered' consumers may not be shown homes they would have preferred and end up paying higher commissions that are effectively added to the sale price of homes."

In a typical real estate transaction, the commission is split 50-50 between the brokerage firms where the listing agent and the selling agent work. Then, each brokerage pays a share of its take to their respective agents.

Most sellers know what their costs will be. But buyers rarely, if ever, ask -- even though it's their money that is disbursed at closing. It's their money because the commission is paid as a percentage of the purchase price, which the buyer pays.

Another reason you should know what your agent takes from the sale: Your agent should be working for you. If they do not have your best interests at heart, maybe they shouldn't be paid as much as someone who does.

In late 2021, the nation's 600 or so multiple listing services were required by the National Association of Realtors to allow MLS participants to publish the compensation offered to buyer's agents on all home listings.

The new rule was, in part, a response to criticism that by not publishing commission splits, agents were given a green light to steer buyers away from low-commission properties in favor of high-commission ones. Not all agents engage in this unethical practice, but enough do that it is a problem -- one recognized by the Federal Trade Commission as far back as 1983.

In his latest report, Brobeck says that even though some firms and listing-aggregate portals now allow splits to be published, few brokerages do so. Only Redfin "predominately publishes" buy-side rates on the houses carried on its site, Brobeck's research found. Redfin, for what it's worth, is primarily a discount broker.

Zillow, Keller Williams and Better Homes and Gardens show rates for only about half the houses on their sites, largely because local MLSs don't publish them, according to the report. And major firms like Century 21, Berkshire Hathaway, Sotheby's, Compass, Howard Hanna, Long and Foster, Crye-Leike and Realty One rarely, if ever, note buy-side commission rates.

Unfortunately, knowing what your agent earns for helping you find a house and making sure the sale goes through isn't likely to increase price competition, Brobeck explains, because splits are coupled together in one rate. He has been a major advocate for the uncoupling of commission rates.

Buyers should have the same ability to negotiate commissions with their own agents that sellers have with theirs, Brobeck says. "Untying commissions would allow buyers to negotiate rates, encourage sellers to do the same and provide new opportunities for discount brokers to market their services."

Two major lawsuits against the NAR are challenging the practice of tying rates together. Until that decoupling occurs, if it ever does, homebuyers should always look at the listing to find what share of the sales commission their agents are earning. If you can't find that percentage, ask your agent -- and don't settle for "half" as an answer. Half of what?

If your agent still balks, you can "almost always" find what you need to know on Redfin's property listings, says Brobeck.

Armed with that information, you can check to see if your agent discourages you from visiting properties where their cut is smaller. And if the percentage seems high, you can inquire whether a portion of it can be rebated to you. (Note: Nine states still outlaw such rebates.)

If buyer's agent rates were easily available to homebuyers, the CFA report says, "buyers might wonder or even question agents' reluctance to show buyers low-commission properties. Moreover, informed buyers could insist that these properties be shown."

The key message is this, says Brobeck: "Learn the commission rate offered to agents on any property of great interest to you. And talk to your agent about the possibility of a partial rebate of this commission to you."

Property taxes are rising right along with the cost of food, gas and other necessities. One main difference: You won't have to wait for inflation to come down to lower your property taxes. And you can do it all yourself.

"Most people are under-assessed, but the market is changing," says Alison Tulio of Incenter Tax Solutions, a company that appeals property tax assessments on behalf of homeowners. The company works with a network of 10,000 local appraisers and attorneys across the country. "Values are declining, which means more and more people will (soon) be over-assessed. That's when you can appeal."

It's not hard to protest your tax: Just follow the instructions that come along with your tax bill. I once did it.

All I had to do was find out which houses were being used by the local assessor's office as comparables for mine. Then I went to these houses, giving each of them a once-over to determine how they differed from my place. (I couldn't get inside, of course -- didn't even try -- but the exterior differences were enough to make my case.)

Once equipped with my list, I made an appointment to discuss my findings on the phone. The woman on the call was very nice, listened to me politely, asked a few questions and said I'd be hearing from her office in due course.

A few weeks later, I received a letter telling me the assessment had been lowered. I don't remember by how much, but it was sizable enough for me to think it was well worth the little bit of time and trouble I put in.

If you're too busy to do the spade work yourself, there are companies that help people object to their high tax bills. They'll do the research and make the case on your behalf, following the rules of your county.

What's more, they claim an extremely high success rate. Since it launched in 2021, Incenter claims a 93% success rate for residential appeals and 98% winning percentage for commercial properties. The company says that last year, it cut its residential clients' tax bills by about $4,000, on average.

Of course, there's a fee involved. In Incenter's case, there's no charge to review a case and no charge if the appeal is not successful. If the company wins your case, though, you owe half of the first year's savings. Every year after that, the savings are all yours because your house will continue to be taxed at a lower figure until it's reassessed.

There are plenty of local outfits that will appeal your property tax, including some lenders and real estate brokers. Tulio herself appealed tariffs for hundreds of property owners in Pennsylvania and New Jersey before becoming Incenter's president. But her company is one of the few national firms offering the service.

Again, though, you can always file an appeal on your own. Tulio says it is incumbent upon all homeowners to check their tax bills every year. If you think you were over-assessed, you should file an appeal, with or without professional help.

Unfortunately, in Tulio's experience, most people don't. Many just don't bother, she told me, and some miss the deadline. But others are intimidated by the process or don't know what evidence they need.

Usually, the rules are pretty cut and dry. But no one tells you how to prepare, Tulio warns. That's where the professionals come in.

"It's scary to attend a hearing," she says, "and if you don't know what you're doing, if you don't present the right information, you can open up yourself to a higher assessment. It's not a game people want to be playing."

If you decide to go it alone, pay attention to the appeals deadline. You may have only a few weeks to get your ducks in a row. Next, determine how your property is assessed. This process varies among local tax authorities, but most use a percentage of the assessed value to calculate the tax. So if your house is assessed at $500,000, and the assessor bases the tax on 75% of the value, the tax will be for a $375,000 property.

"There are two numbers involved: assessed market value and actual market value," Tulio explains. "If your actual market value is lower than the assessed market value, you are over-assessed and should appeal."

Now check for mistakes in the tax documents. Is the square footage correct? Number of bedrooms and baths? Do the records show you have a garage when you don't? Look for errors online or by going to the assessor's office. Discovering a major error could result in cutting your tax bill without having to appeal.

The next step is to compare your property to others like it in your neighborhood. Talk to your neighbors to see what they are paying. You may be getting off cheap, or you could be paying too much. And look for recent sales in your neighborhood to see if values are still on the upswing, holding steady or declining.

Finally, when you file, arm yourself with photos, repair estimates if applicable, and perhaps even blueprints. Anything to support your case.

If you win your case, the savings won't just be for the current year. You'll pocket the difference at least until the next assessment -- which could be three, four or five years away.

With the inventory of unsold houses rising on a daily basis, it's time for sellers to consider taking a page out of the homebuilders' playbook -- especially when it comes to financing.

More than 70% of builders who spoke with researchers at John Burns Real Estate Consulting in November were offering some kind of incentive to attract buyers to their model houses. Builders, of course, have all sorts of tactics they can employ to attract traffic: reducing their prices, offering free upgrades and paying buyers' closing costs, to name a few. But the one used most often -- and usually the most effectively -- is the mortgage rate buydown.

With a temporary buydown, the builder pays a fee upfront to the lender in exchange for lowering the buyer's mortgage rate for a set period. The Burns firm found that roughly a third of the surveyed builders were buying down their rate on a temporary basis for two years, while another third bought their rate down for the entire term of a 30-year loan.

Buydowns come in all shapes and sizes: You can pay to drop the rate as low as you want for as long as you want. But, of course, the lower the rate and the longer the buydown, the more it will cost. Burns reports that builders are paying 5% to 6% of their homes' sales prices to lower their buyers' rates by 1% to 2% for the entire 30 years.

As an individual seller, you likely wouldn't want to give away that much. But for a lot less money, you can stair-step the buydown: The rate will be its lowest in the first year of the loan, slightly higher in the second, and then in the third year, the rate reverts to what it was when the loan was written.

The most popular buydown among builders seems to be the 2-1 model. They pay roughly 2% of the purchase price to lower the first-year rate by two percentage points and the second-year rate by 1 percentage point. In other words, if market rates are 6%, the homebuyer's rate would be 4% the first year, 5% the second year and 6% thereafter.

A buyer will still have to qualify at the highest rate that will occur during the 30-year term -- 6%, in the example above. Some buyers may not qualify, but those who do could get some relief from higher payments for 24 months.

In some regards, a buydown is similar to an adjustable-rate mortgage (ARM): The rate, and therefore the payment, is lower in the beginning of the loan, then rises after a set period. If you're selling your place, you can suggest that your buyer consider an ARM.

Today's ARMs are not the same as those that helped bring the housing market to its knees in 2008, precipitating a financial crisis and the Great Recession. Back then, one- and two-year ARMs with super-low starting rates and no documentation requirements were dangled before any buyer who could fog a mirror.

Since then, federal regulators have tightened the rules. Most loans now have a fixed starting period of five, seven or even 10 years before the rate adjusts, according to the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. The extended time frame allows borrowers to build enough equity to reduce the risk of foreclosure. And by the first adjustment, the thinking goes, most borrowers will have refinanced into a fixed-rate loan.

Another possibility: If your home loan is backed by Uncle Sam -- that is, by the Federal Housing Administration or the Department of Veterans Affairs -- it may be assumable, meaning a qualified borrower can simply take over your mortgage. If the loan has a low enough rate, says Florida agent Cara Ameer, "it could be a huge selling tool."

Texas broker Erika Rae Albert agrees: "Sellers with an assumable loan should be clearly advertising this unique selling feature."

Again, though, your buyer will have to meet your lender's approval. They'll also have to come up with the difference between the purchase price and the outstanding loan amount, which means either a larger down payment or a second mortgage, which will also have to be cleared by the lender.

There are other financing techniques, too, but they are more dangerous. One involves funding the deal yourself; the other is called a "wraparound mortgage."

If you own your place outright, you can agree to be your buyer's lender. If you still owe part of your mortgage, but the outstanding balance is low enough that it's covered by your buyer's down payment, you can pay off your loan and still act as the lender.

Here, you must be as diligent as a regular lender would be. Look over your buyer's bank statements and tax returns; verify their employment and credit score. Since you are the lender, you get to dictate the interest rate, the length of the loan and other terms.

A wraparound involves two loans: your original loan with your lender and a new loan with your buyer. You would continue to pay your mortgage and charge your buyer a higher rate on the other loan, with the difference going in your pocket. Again, though, you have to be extremely diligent. Consider employing a real estate attorney to put the deal together.