It all depends on the agent, the area, the market and the expectations of the seller. Result oriented will get the job done using all the tools available. 

My friend had a defibrilating pacemaker surgery. The pacemaker itself cost $100,000 though in theory the cost of the parts were under $50. That didn't include the hospital, surgical tech team, doctors and other supplies. The point is there is R&D and we agents have lots of R&D to get the job done. The seller isn't just paying for the parts.

And the answer is at the end of the following joke: 

A woman calls in a plumber when her washing machine breaks down. The plumber arrives, studies the machine, then produces a hammer and gives it a hefty whack.
The washing machine starts working again and the plumber presents a bill for $200.
‘Two hundred dollars?’ says the woman. ‘All you did was hit it with the hammer.’
So the plumber gives her an itemised bill: ‘Hitting washing machine with a hammer – $5. Knowing where to hit it – $195.’

I see that you've not sold a $30M home before. The truth is agent #3 will not receive 2.5% and likely has 100 times the amount that Agent 1 invests in marketing. Don't believe everything agent #2 tells you either. It's not as easy as it looks on paper. 

Go ahead. Find a buyer for that 30 million dollar property. Negotiate a deal and get it to closing. Then you tell me if it was easier or harder than the $300,000 home. Hell yes, it's going to be harder. It's going to require more knowledge of the players in the game. It's an elite group that could afford a home that expensive--can you get to them? The guy that can is worth the 750k commission and the seller of the 30 million dollar home knows it.

It's not what you do. It's what you know. And who you know!

Anyone who deals with HNWIs and luxury homes, (go talk to the lovely Mrs. Seigel who knows some of the biggest), will tell you that they will not just work with anyone. You have to be connected, respected, and you have to show results.

This is not a put in MLS, send out postcards, and answer web inquiries thing.

It's a great question though.

NAR recently reported that 29% of its members currently have less than 2 years in the business, I just saw Saul Klein post about it. That's a lot of baby agents. This is something that wouldn't make sense to somebody that didn't understand. There's a lot to learn for all of us in this business.

Simple answer, no.  They aren't working that much harder.  The more expensive a property, the longer the marketing time and more expensive the marketing.  I would think a large retainer fee and a smaller commission percentage would work well, but it's not my market.  My average sales price is about $400,000.  I sold one close to a $1Million once, and the work was a bit more in marketing, but nothing outrageous.

   I am paid a commission for finding a ready, willing, and able buyer.  The amount of "work" involved is irrespective.  

   Here is the Listing Contract that I have with a Seller:

This just makes me laugh as you are an outsider not involved in real estate.

1st off, try to find that 30M buyer as someone else suggested. Where to find one? Standing in front of the library with their checkbook?

Someone who owns a $30m home does not want an agent to sell their home who lives in the low income end of town. The whole birds of a feather thing.

Other than that i don't understand why we should justify our earnings. We get what the public is willing to pay just like the owner of the $30m home is hoping to do.

They work harder, though many will claim that they spend just as much time on the lower priced listings, most will spend much more on those elite listings.

• Better staging
• Better photography
• Better adds
• More hand holding

In our market the first senario you pose is toward the top of the market, the others are just something to dream about.

The work involved in marketing a $30 Million dollar property could very well deserve a commission of that magnitude.

every transaction is different, and the degree of difficulty is not related to the price.... it's most often a direct reflection of "the people" we're dealing with... I've had high end transactions that went smoothly and very low end that were high maintenance (people and property!)....  

if you're focused on your income, move to Beverly Hill  .... oh, wait, you don't just secure listings because you live there!!! 

Not necessarily, on the 30 million, it may take longer to sell as the higher the price the smaller the pool of buyers.  A

LOL you are comparing Lexus to Lambo's to Mercedes-Benz Maybach Exelero-all nice to own, all very different to afford and care for.

Every agent (business) is different. So yes, so do work 10X harder-I know I do than most.

Also you are spending serious upfront marketing dollars in the luxury market that you are not below $1,500,000 in CA. So overhead goes up exponentially in relation to the level of home you are selling.

Also, the carrying costs are 10X longer in luxury than non-luxury. In your example, home one sold in 1 week, home two in 90-180 days and home three in 18 months-3 years.

Work?  Not sure I totally understand what you mean by that...  If you mean the risk of NOT getting paid is 10x greater, then we are on to something.  What is the chance of us recouping the monies spent on marketing the home?  The risk is all on the agent.  It may not sell, and the agent has perhaps spent enourmous sums to try to get the house sold, as well as an enourmous amount of time.  In essence, they could work for free.  At $30M, the air gets pretty thin up there at that price point.

As you go up in the price of the property... longer listing times are common... and larger marketing budgets come into play in order to attract a buyer.

I have a colleague of mine who had a ten-million dollar listing a few years back... and she spent over $10,000 in marketing over the length of the listing.  In addition, she held a broker's open house with catering and a string quartet on the patio by the pool (no idea what that cost her)... and in the end... the property did not sell!

The difficulty of selling a $30,000,000 property, over a $3,000,000 property increases exponentially.

Apples and oranges, perhaps.  More information is needed. 

Does each respective agent work 10 times harder?

Did Renoir or Dali work 10 times harder than Merle Twitcher did sweating through the Florida afternoon sun for weeks painting a 25' x 60' mural?

I would share the false assumptions made in your question but am not aware if you have the education, experience or capable of using such information responsibly. A profile helps in that regard.

You've received a lot of good answers here. And it's not necessarily a question of working "harder" but for a longer period of time with many more expensive marketing costs associated with a very expensive property.

Lets take  a single family home from 300k to 3 million as it is easier to compare. Each listing would receive my top marketing. The 3 million doolar home would get an increase in marketing material, would tak emore time to sell, longer ads, more expensive to market. The agent should be using that increase in potential commission to increase marketing. NOW it also includes time behind the scenes such as dealing with the seller, how easy it will be to sell, how much time is required to sell and to close. There is more to selling a home than finding a buyer, the time to close is much more than time it takes to fond a buyer in some markets. We do not have 30 million dollar properties, so i can not relate 

The amount of work and time needed to market and sell the three properties is vastly different.  I have all three in my market (range is in the 400,000s to 187 million).  The 300k will likely be sold inside of a month in multiple offers and appeals to the widest range of buyers.  The 3 million dollar home will take several months to sell and you need a family that earns a couple hundred thousand per year to afford it.  Out here, the 3-10 million range is mostly executives for larger companies, Pam Anderson, Tommy Lee, Heather Locklear, Brittney Spears... yes they all have homes out here.

The 30m and up, that home may take 1-2 years to sell.  It requires a MUCH higher level of advertising and national exposure.  The 187m home has been on every local news channel and several national and international ones.  You need the right kind of magazines to advertise it in (Opera playbills, Yachting, CEO, etc.).  The types of people that live in those out here are the head of UCLA, ultra-successful money mangers, older money, and celebriteis such as Cher, Tom Selleck, Sophia Loren, etc.  And I've actually been to their homes (well, not Cher's that one I've only driven by).

That 750k commission on the 30m home, may be the only home that agent sells all year or more, where as the agent selling 300k homes can sell dozens or hundreds in a year.

You take your car to be serviced.  The pricing manual the service centers use say the job should take 3 hrs at $$$$.  Your service center completes the job in 1 hr yet your bill is for the 3 hrs.

Reference to the agents, you could have an agent that has to work 10x harder... though you could have an agent who already has a cash client in their back pocket ready to immediately jump on the $30,000,000 property.

Do all agents who deal with a $300,000 property put in exactly the same amount of work... not likely.  The inexperienced agent may put in much more work than the more experienced agent. For that matter it could end up being the complete oposite.

There are all sorts of differences in terms of the knowledge and experience needed, the costs and time needed for appropriate marketing, being able to find the right buyers and so much more during the transaction.

Your question implies that the three agents will all be doing the same thing, spending the same money on marketing, have the same circle of potential buyer, have the same level of experience and knowledge, etc.

Of course, those assumptions would be wrong.

Commissions are negotiable. Some offer discounts and some do not. At one point in time I offered a "Cadillac" service for a higher fee along with a standard fee. Most took the standard fee which was acceptable to me. Some took the "Cadillac" fee and I earned every penny!

The same argument can be made at almost any Price Point ?

Check the DOM for those 3 price points and get back with me.

Often the lower priced homes can be more time consuming for me and therefore more “work.” Flaking paint on a sale with an FHA loan is a common example on an older home that needs some maintenance. Holdbacks for painting that cannot be done in the winter in our climate. We can still get the sale to close but it’s just going to take a little more time and energy. More expensive homes are usually in better condition.

They are all different sales. Some are more labor intensive than others. 

It depends!  Many good responses. 

Candice A. Donofrio hit the nail on the head. 
It's not what you do. It's what you know. And who you know! 

Then, taking that knowledge to get it done. 

The second and third agent will have to swallow a discounted fee or flat fee. The number 1 volumn in America is a discounted broker. Same on buyer's side. You must be a new realtor or 29% NAR membership.

Whatever the parties agree to. I echo Debbie Reynolds comment.  There is far more to what agents bring to the table than what may appear on the surface just looking at the numbers.  

We handle all our listings the same way - from $200K to $10.3 million thus far...

In my market, there are fewer buyers in the million dollar range so listing a million dollar property requires a lot more marketing, showings, and hand holding. The cost of marketing, photography expenses, open houses etc, are also higher for higher end listings.

Debbie Reynolds was spot on!  I agree with her.

This has always been the elephant in the room. Pay is due but how much?

Interesting question to pose

You should hot diswcuss commissions but you probably aren't a REALTOR®.

Since you didn't specify which type of real estate agent you wanted to toss shade at, let's start with the listing agent.

It took YEARS for the listing agents to obtain the ability to list that top dollar property.  YEARS.  And you're assuming that their listing contract is at 2.5%  It may not be.  Might be 1%, might be 3% . . . 

So the premise of "10x's harder" is not germane.  

The $300K listing might have a 7% listing contract, and sell in one day, multiple-offers, and actual sales price $375K, no concessions.

If the 3 agents are "buyers agents" -- the same could be said.  It took YEARS to work with Buyers in the top dollar price range.

These price ranges are represented by agents who specialize in those price-points.  Those properties are not equal, to begin with an all require a very specific, unique and experienced skill set.

The work involved is lost on anonymous posters who have no idea how this industry works.

Agent #1 is underpaid!

Seriously, I'm going with Debbie Reynolds' answer!

Ha ha ha. 

Same effort to get it done and close. 

Just the LUCK. 

Charge less if your services are worth less than the agree commission.

It's not the same market/ business or cost of living in those three markets.  It's like comparing apples and oranges.

Great answers are here. Good luck. 

Every buyer has different needs, and also different time spent on their transaction.

Higher ticket items can also have higher costs for the agent and higher level of responsibility

No

I agree with Dave Halpern -  I know how to sell fast and market my listings effectively - others in the area... not so much ;)

The expectations differ at higher price level. Believe me, it is worth every penny we earn for higher priced homes - beginning with maintaining and building the relationship.