Cooperating Broker

A cooperating broker is a non-listing third-party broker that finds a buyer for the property. In other words, a cooperating broker is the broker that finds a buyer, but is not listing that specific property. This occurrence happens quite frequently in the real estate industry. A broker's desire is to locate buyers for properties, whether he or she is actually listing the home. A cooperating broker earns a share of the commission paid at the close of the sale; the specifics of the commission distribution are agreed upon between both brokers. It is commonplace for brokers to split the commission evenly, but other arrangements can be made to compensate for special circumstances. For example, a cooperating broker may agree to less than half of the commission if the listing broker had invested a great amount of time and effort into marketing the property.