The following information has been provided by Mary “Molly” Brannon Hudson, Esq., Hudson Law, PA.

Unfortunately, bonus compensation may be one of those odd situations in which perhaps the best advice is to do nothing. I know that sounds crazy, so let me explain.

I understand that in offering a bonus, the Seller is attempting to incentivize the Selling Agent to make a greater effort to show the subject property. In doing so, however, they don’t want to pay this additional incentive premium if the subject property does not enlist a sufficient offer that would include adequate profit for the Seller after considering the cost of the bonus. Needless to say, this is not a situation in which we can communicate to an independent third party a reserve (bottom line) number at which anything above that number is acceptable.

Whereas, in the case of a home, you can only consider offers, generally one at a time, and if a bonus is included in the listing you are still obligated to pay the bonus regardless of whether the offer the Seller feels compelled to accept is actually less than your bottom line after taking into consideration the cost of the bonus. There is concern that if you become too verbose in the listing you may very well compromise your negotiating posture by inadvertently disclosing your bottom-line.

As a secondary issue, I am concerned that too much additional wording could be used against the listing agent or the Seller as to a possible disclosure claim. That said, I feel that best route in this case is to show the bonus in your listing absent any additional language and if and when the Seller receives an offer which is otherwise acceptable, but for the bonus, allow the agents to work that out between them with the understanding that they are almost there, but not quite. Surely the Selling Agent understands that regardless of the list price and the referenced bonus there is a bottom-line for the Seller at which after considering all cost is acceptable to them.