Actually, if I as a buyer had to pay 3% to a buyer's agent for their services, I'd think long and hard about the cost/benefit, and I might not use one. Or I'd look for a few people to parcel out some of the work, like an attorney to write the contract, or someone to do the negotiation if I weren't comfortable with it, or whatever. (In what other industry is it cheaper to hire a lawyer to do the paperwork?) You guys are all talking as though it's just a given that every transaction has to have a 6% transfer to real estate agents, so all we need to do is figure out who pays for it. I'm talking about breaking that paradigm because I think that's way too high a transaction fee, and I would love for that system to become more efficient, letting both buyer and seller keep more money in their pockets instead of handing it over to layers of agents and brokers. One thing that keeps it perpetuating is that sellers pay buyers agents, so the buyers keep using the "free" service, so sellers continue to find it hard to sell without using the real estate industrial complex. Vicious cycle. I didn't mean to hijack this thread, or to start another debate on the topic. I'll crawl back in my shell again. Sorry.

Real Estate Agents are licensed by the state and follow state laws and regulations. Realtors have taken a step further and joined the NAR (at the local, state and national levels) and are bound by their stricter rules and the Code of Ethics. Most Realtors also join their local MLS and sometimes more than one. I don't believe you can join MLS without being a Realtor, but you can be a Realtor without joining MLS. In my experience, the 2nd-hand websites are not as up-to-date or accurate as MLS. I know some agents put their buyers on auto-notification but I always screen the notices so that incurs a delay, but it's the service I provide my buyers. I forward along maybe 1/4 of the notices because the searches will send along a lot of junk. For example right now, a buyer I'm working with would keep getting notices about a particular home that is a disaster because the listing agent is dropping the price or making a change to the listing every few days so that it keeps popping up on my notifications, but I know my buyers are NOT interested, so I screen it out for them. As far as access to MLS, as far as my local one goes, I have a lot more search and screen capability (with the exception of being able to exclude specific properties, unfortunately!) than any of the online sites, especially in the mapping which I have to use all too often to encapsulate certain neighborhoods. The closest, most accurate one available of course, is Realtor.com, because that is directly sourced from MLS. I don't know the specifics, but I think Redfin and Trulia and Zillow all data-mine their "listings" and that's why there are numerous inaccuracies. I am often, all too often, looking up properties that my buyers find on Zillow or Craigslist and have to tell them that it has been off the market for weeks or sold or a scam (in the case of CL) and basically, there is a legitimate reason I didn't show you that house! This stuff is all over my head, but I know there are rumors of NAR going into cooperation with these other websites, which will change the game. As far as low inventory - that is my neighborhood exactly. The home that I found for my buyers was a walk-by - knew they had it listed years ago, and FSBO after that, so I was walking by last week and saw them out front and asked it they were still thinking about moving and...we should be under contract tonight if all goes well. This is after I've already contacted the major agents who farm this neighborhood to see if they had any pocket listings (meaning a listing coming up, or someone thinking about selling but hasn't committed, basically pre-MLS). This is what an aggressive buyers' agent can do for you. All the major agents who farm here have been sending out letters in the last few months stating that they have buyers looking for homes, so much that the last listing went under contract the same day the sign went up. You'll have to see the threads that have been posted about approaching people, writing letters and postcards, etc and maybe try that if you can't find a buyers' agent to work aggressively for you.

I don't know any agent that would go into a deal not knowing what they were getting paid. If I have a buyer that sees a FSBO that they would like to see, I will approach the FSBO seller and negotiate, in writing, a fee if the deal closes.

Hey Wow, I've been absent a couple days from the board (my whole family including DH has the chicken pox). It has been hard to keep up with everything. Just wanted to clear up a couple of things about my initial question and current situation. The paper the realtor had the seller sign was not a contract, it was a disclaimer that any offer presented through the realtor included 3% sales commission. I did not know that at first. Second, my first idea was not a flat fee it was 1.5-2% split evenly by buyer and seller. My confusion was that in our area (midwest) houses sell from 130k to 300k, if my realtor sold a house at 130k of which he has many listed than that would earn him the same sales commission that I was offering him so how could he lose money just because the price was higher. I was confused about that. He did ultimately agree to the fee, maybe only because he was aware we could present our offer directly to the seller. This realtor is a good friend of mine and I think he may have felt bad knowing that the seller did not want to go through him. I wanted to make a deal that would work for all 3 parties. I read another post where people found and bought a fsbo and sent thier realtor a thank you note, and a gas card and hopefully some refferals. I found that concept insulting. I did like some of the ideas about a gift card, more expensive and not for gas ($500), but of course worried that would also be insulting. I did not entertain the idea of them losing money because it is slow sales in our area right now and my realtor's firm just started about 4 months ago. Honestly I would have thought his reaction would have been more along the lines of "Thank you, I know that you had no obligation to use our office and your faith in me means alot". I did not get that reaction and by the time they agreed to the 4000 I felt like I was practically begging. As for owner thinking we were eager buyers, that is possible. I believe he had his house priced about 25K below what a realtor could have sold for. I think that he fairly priced it without that 5-6% in it. I truly believe I got a good price in the end 283500. I want to thank everyone on this board and especially all the realtors that post here. I've learned alot