Trouble is, she can't show you a house that's not listed by MLS, and will get no commission out of it. You're free in this instance to do what you want as far as I know, but if it really worries you, call a broker at some RE company, and ask them outright about it. You certainly don't have to identify yourself.

Among the houses we've seen and liked, our favorite has now gone "For Sale By Owner"

If you're saying that the agent had shown you this house while it was listed thru MLS and has "now" gone FSBO, the seller would still owe the agent her commission. There is a clause is most real estate contracts that extends past the time period of the contract unless the house is relisted with another agent.

Some FSBO people will still pay a buyer's agent. It won't hurt to have her call and find out.

Be upfront with your agent. She sounds like a good agent. It's nice to have someone on your side when buying. The most important thing is that you find the house that you love, so don't be afraid to tell her that you found a FSBO.

Most FSBOs in today market will gladly pay the BUYERs Broker a commission. Heck, it's a BUYER!
Your agent should call the owner & make some type of commission agreement. I'm sure the owner will be glad to pay her something (maybe like 2.5%) for bringing them, a buyer. I would.

Thank you for your help!!

So I should first try having my realtor contact the FSBO sellers to see if they will deal with my realtor? If the sellers are not willing to work with buyers agents, then my husband and I have to do the negotiations on our own? I just want to make sure I understand that correctly.

If these sellers are willing to work with our realtor, then they (the sellers and our realtor) would mutually agree on an amount of commission?

Thanks, there are so many complications in real estate...

Licensed real estate practitioners can negotiate any transaction, whether the property is "listed" or not & whether it's in MLS or not.

MLS is a trade organization that facilitates real estate transactions.

You can have any real estate practitioner (agent or broker) of your choice represent you in any real estate transaction.

Your representative's payment is between you & her/him.

When I negotiate the purchase of a FSBO, I tell the sellers that the provision that the seller pay my fee is a matter of wording & that my fee has been included in the offer.

Do you have a buyer's agent agreement with her? If so, check its terms. When I was looking for houses, my agent (buyer's agent--I was not selling a house) showed me FSBO's as well as listings through agents. Under the agreement, the agent would receive his fee whether the property I chose was a FSBO or on MLS. If the FSBO was not willing to pay the fee (3%), then I was responsible for paying the fee. That actually deterred me from buying a FSBO listing that was advertised; the seller was not willing to pay sellers' agents fees, so it was not worth it to me to pay a 3% premium for that property (the FSBO was the same price as MLS listings of similar size/location, but the agent fees would be covered by the seller for a property on the MLS).

I agree that in this market, sellers should be more flexible than they were when I was working with a buyer's agent. Even when I was looking (in a sellers' market), some FSBO's DID pay buyer's agent commissions; they usually advertised it by putting 'buyer's agents welcome' or 'cooperating with buyer's agents' in their ad or flyer.

YOU should contact the FSBO, not your agent. You are perfectly capable of setting up an appt on your own and bringing an agent might cause you to pay 3% higher in price for this property. Go look, and ask the seller whether they pay a commission to realtors if you want to bring your realtor into the deal. Take it from there.

If your agent was that good, you would not even be having this open question. A good agent would have clearly explained to you how that agent would handle FSBOs for you. Instead, many agents hide their head in the sand and act like FSBOs don't exist. In this case, if I was the buyer, I would not use the agent for the FSBO because the agent conveniently acted liked FSBOs were not part of your market and didn't exlain how you would look at any of them.

Please note that I sold FSBO on more than one occasion. One of my FSBO sales, there was a couple that was very, very interested in my home. They looked twice and came without their agent. After they explained to their agent that they wanted to make an offer, the agent reminded them that they signed a buyer's agreement and in this they promised 3% commission to the buyer's agent. Of course, when they signed, the agent explained not to worry because the seller pays the commission. However, we were FSBO and only would pay 1.5% commission (approx $5000). These particilar buyers could not stomach paying the other 1.5% commission so the agent could get the total 3%. So the deal did not happen. We sold to someone else shortly after that and gave the buyer the $5000 "commission" directly (off purchase price) because buyer did't have an agent.

You say that this house has "gone" FSBO. Was it previously listed with an agent? Was it listed when you first saw it? Has it been less than 90 days since it was listed with an agent? If so, it is very likely that the seller will owe their agent a commission on the sale. I would bring it up with my agent and get her input on the situation.

If you have a buyer broker agreement- read it and it will tell what is expected...if you don't you have a decision to make.

I once represented a seller but did not have a buyer broker agreement and they told me they found a FSBO who would not pay my commission and they felt they could do it on their own.. I said good luck.. their house was under contract and they proceeded to put the FSBO under. My advice to you is the same advice I gave to them...Follow the terms of the contract including dates....after their building inspection went badly they tried to negotiate only to find out that their timeframe had gone by and the seller knew they had them...my commission would have been about $4,500. The repairs were going to be around $10,000 so they decided not to buy the house. They lost their EMD of $5000 when they decided not to buy the house and the seller sued them and won. I have a few transactions every year where a client calls me to get involved with a FSBO transaction that has gone wrong.

Make sure in trying to save money you don't cost yourself more money.

Okay, thanks for the information about buying a FSBO. We just saw yet another house that looks nice, and is also listed FSBO.

However, in the original question, the house I was referring to that is now FSBO, was previously listed with another realtor, and was when we first looked at it. So in that particular case, it is the sellers responsibility to pay the realtors commission (both ours and his?)? That is, if he chooses to sell to us. I guess he may decide not to work with us, given that since we looked at his house when he was listed with a realtor he would have to pay commissions if he sold to us.

Thanks for all the helpful advice. I really do appreciate it.