Buying a house w/o an agent - will I save 3%?

[Anonymous]

We bought here in 2003 (in a sellers market) and still managed to buy without a realtor and get 3% off the price of our house. Whether or not the sellers had to still pay their agent both sides of the commission, I don't know, but I doubt they would've agreed to give us a 3% discount unless they didn't have to pay their agent.

[Anonymous]

Money back from your agent at closing is NOT illegal!! If you are doing something under the table maybe, but we got a 1% rebate from our buyer's agent at settlement. Everyone at the table knew it was happening.

I can see where a bank might be bothered by this if you were putting 0% down, but otherwise I don't see why they would care. We never actually saw our 1% because it went directly into our down payment (20%).

[Anonymous]

The guy that bought my house from me turned out to be sleezy and very difficult. His agent was scum, profane, and insane. They seemed normal when we were writing up the contracts and agreed to a lot they had no intention of honoring.

God bless my real estate agent. If I hadn't had an agent (and a good agent at that), I'd have run into some serious trouble.

I see the appeal of working without an agent, but there can be some risk.

[Anonymous]

I'm the original poster - thank you for the feedback! We did find an agent we like. Now it's time to negotiate. Do I ask for the 1% back off the sales price from my home that I'm selling, or the home that I'm buying?

[Anonymous]

I would ask for it off of the home you are buying, assuming the new home is going to cost more than the old one. Otherwise I guess you could get .5% off of each deal.

I am the PP who got 1% from our agent (with full service). I will caution you that agents REALLY do not want it to get out that their commission is negotiable, but IT IS!! Be prepared to walk away from any agent who acts like you are crazy to ask for this. Our agent was the 3rd one that we approached about this - afterwards we talked to many other people who got deals from their agents, so its happening more than they want you to believe.