Not a chance!
I hear this regularly. In my opinion, this is one of the biggest fallacies in real estate today!
Just because you don't stroke a cheque to your realtor doesn't mean you are not paying for it. Think about it. If you are selling your house and using a real estate agent your first thought is generally "I need to get $X for my house". Then you figure what the agent is going to cost and tack it on top. Looking at it from that point of view....the buyer ends up paying the ENTIRE realtor commission as the seller has passed it on to you.
I prefer to look at it this way. The cost of selling the home is on the seller and the cost of buying is on the buyer (what can I say...I am a no nonsense kinda guy). In a standard 5% realtor assisted transaction the 5% is split 50/50 between the buyers agent and the sellers agent, 2.5% each.
In a Private Sale transaction the seller pays to market the home with services like PropertyGuys.com and the buyer is responsible to pay for any representation he chooses to use (buyer's agent). Now this can be negotiated into the purchase price, meaning the buyer pays more for the house than without the agent, or the buyer can pay for the agent themselves. We have seen this happen but it is for sure the minority. Our experiences tell us that less than 15% of private sale transactions have a buyer's agent involved and that the BUYER is the one paying for them, even if they are paid through the transaction!
Now what exactly is a "Buyer's Service Agreement"? Below an agent describes what "Buyer's Representation" is. Pay attention to the comment about paying the agent whether they are the ones who find you the house or not. This would mean once you sign the agreement you are on the hook even if they do NO WORK!
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