[quote author="awgee" date=1232351903]One more thing.
It seems to me all you should care about is paying as little as possible.
Why should you care who makes what?
If you pay $500,000 and the agent gets 6%, isn't that better than you paying $600,000 and the agent gets 3%?
Keep your eye on what you can control.</blockquote>
<blockquote>Of course the buyer needs to take into consideration that there is one less commission to pay in the deal and the buyer lessens their offer by the 2 1/2% or 3%. That is the advantage to not having a buyer?s agent.
Don?t try to be too smart or control more than is in your control. Make your offer with the knowledge that the listing agent will lower their commission in order to close the deal or the seller is going to quickly take the home off the market and list with a more intelligent agent as soon as is legally possible. But, don?t try to involve yourself in the seller?s affairs or contracts.</blockquote>
Well it was nice of you to answer your own question before you even asked it. The above is one example of why viewing the "price" as a black box is not going to be the most effective way of approaching things. The RE brokers commission is a variable, there are no laws of physics involved here, it can be another negotiating point. The seller and broker reached an agreement, signed a contract, but there is nothing that precludes them from modifying that agreement if they believe that it is to their mutual benefit.
The OP is trying to get a lower purchase price by renegotiating the existing contract, in a situation that seems to come up frequently. If he/she simply ignored the individual components of the price, or if he/she didn't pay attention to things that might be considered as "out of your control", then I think that they would be missing an opportunity to pay the best, lowest price. And of course, everyone KNOWS that the commission ALWAYS comes up when the negotiating gets tough, when things are close, but at an impasse. The commission is no sacred cow. LOL
I'd still recommend that people always try to pay the commission directly at closing. If you can afford to do it, it beats the hell out of paying interest on that commission for the next 30-years, and you will start with a lower tax basis.
