Is it possible to save money on buying a house if you do not use a real estate agent? If the usual 6% commission is split equally between the buying and selling agent, and it comes from the pocket of the seller, the seller should be willing to sell to me at a 3% lower price if he only needs to a 3% commission to his agent. Or does the full 6% go to the selling agent if the buyer has no agent?
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This is a buyers' martket, anything is possible from a buyers side.
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A lot depends on the listing contract but the selling agent may be willing to forgo the buying agent's share to make the sale (especially now)
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In buying property, I would suggest the following plan. Familiarize yourself with the area where you are going to buy. Actually drive around on your own and look at a lot of houses with a for sale sign in front. Look through newspaper ads. Look at computer sites, the MLS if you can. When you find something interesting, call the listing agent and say: "I would like to see the house at so-and-so address. Is it still available? If it is not available, I do not want to look at anything else."
If you do get to see the inside of the place and do not like it, the agent will probably say: "Can I show you something else? I have many other listings, etc...' At this point say "No thanks" and leave. Keep looking around on your own, dealing with one agent at a time, until you find something that meets your needs. Then negotiate with the listing agent of that particular property. I believe this plan in the long run will save both time and money.
In my experience it is rather difficult to sell a house without an agent, unless you happen to personally know someone who is interested in your house, in which case there is no reason at all to involve an agent. However, if you have the time and are willing to expend the effort, it is certainly possible to save a lot of money by going the FSBO (for sale by owner) route.
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If you don't have a buyer's agent then good luck getting the selling agent to give away anything. You might be able to find a buyer's agent that will give you a rebate.
Consider that the seller may not have signed a contract with the standard 6% commission, as the rate is negotiable. When I bought my house in 2002 I found out at settlement that the owner had signed a contract with the selling agent specifying only a 4.5% commission. The lower commission did little for me as I still paid full price for the house and the two agents got to split the reduced 4.5% commission.
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FYI, it's not always split evenly. I used a buying agent and when the seller refused to negoiate any further my agent offered to give back
1% to the seller in order to make the deal go through. The selling agent got 2.5% and my agent got 1.5% (the seller had already negotiated to 5%).
In this market anything is possible, but ordinarily the seller's agent isn't inclined to give away much. Furthermore, the seller isn't going to be enticed to negotiate unless some of the savings goes back into his posket also. I've seen cases where the selling agent agrees to a lesser amount and the buyer and seller split the savings.
Good luck in your house hunting!
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The normal situation (at least in this part of the USA) is that the buyer signs a deal with an agent that commits the buyer to paying 6% of the purchase price to the agent when the house is sold, regardless of how many other agents are involved.
This is true whether you come in with an agent or not.
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