“Covering the [Real Estate] Spread” (i.e., Commission)
Call it real estate brokerage’s dirty little secret: a good Realtor can add more value in some deals than others.
While a Realtor’s “value-added” should always exceed their commission — if it were otherwise, there wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) be 
Realtors — some types of transactions simply offer more opportunity to add value than others.
Real Estate as Commodity
At one extreme is what I’ll call “fungible” or “commodity” residential real estate.
While all real estate is by definition unique, some types are more (and less) unique than others.
When the brand-new 14th floor, northwest-facing Condo with 2 BR/1 BA, 950 square feet and the “A” floor plan sells for $350 a square foot . . it’s a pretty good bet that the identical 13th floor and 15th floor units are going to fetch about 3% below and above that number, respectively.
The exception: when the neighboring building on the north happens to be 14 stories.
See, “(Manhattan) Real Estate Term of the Day: ‘View-Break.'”
Three Criteria
So, where can a good Realtor add the most value?
I look for these 3 attributes:
One. “Diamond in the rough.”
Given how emotional a home purchase can be, the difference between a home coming across as “fresh” rather than “tired” can easily be 20% or more in market value.
Veteran Realtors know where to spend the $5k – $15k (on average) to “re-position” a home that needs it — typically through a combination of home repairs, cosmetic enhancements (such as new light fixtures, refinished floors, etc.) and expert (virtual) staging and marketing.
Note: most homes billed as being “diamonds in the rough” are . . . neither.
That is, they’re closer to coal than diamonds, and their condition (charitably) is way beyond “rough.”
“Comp’s” That . . . Aren’t (Very Comparable)
Two. “Loose” (vs. “Tight”) Comp’s.
The opposite of the identical-but-for-floor condo example above is a home that has few (or no) good Comp’s (“Comparable 
Sold Properties”).
Whereas I’ll characterize the Comp’s as being “tight” when they’re quite similar to the subject property (in terms of location, style, size, condition, and date sold), I’ll refer to the Comp’s as being “loose” when they’re relatively dissimilar.
Fortunately, “what’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”
Translation: if Sellers have a hard time pricing a property . . . so will prospective Buyers.
It’s precisely that kind of situation where a good Realtor has the most leeway to aggressively position (and price) a given property.
Three. Price point.
While tired, unique $150k homes can benefit from all the things discussed above, even if that adds as much as 30% to their market value, the upside is “only” about $50k.
By contrast, if you smartly update a tired, $1 million home . . . suddenly the owner may be able to fetch $1.3 million or $1.4 million.
Assuming the owner of that home invests $30k to $50k in strategic market prep, then pays the listing agent something like $70k at closing (divided into 4 slices, for the listing agent, Buyer’s agent, and their respective brokers), that’s a pretty good return on their investment.*
*Spending $100k to make $200k is a return of 200%, to be exact — more if you annualize it.
