Dave dave dave... Don't bother trying to sell your services here mate. We all know that "buyers advocates" are just out of work re agents. We don't need them, nor do weed re agents selling homes for us for that matter as we can sell them just as easily by ourselves. RE Agents have become parasites on an otherwise healthy market, forcing up prices and scamming people left right and centre. Go get a real job dave and start contributing to society rather than leaching off it.

If the young lady concerned is happy that she saved a whopping 45 g's and Dave has done the same to the tune of 25 g's, then let's all be happy for them. Agents come wrapped in packages both good & not so good.
I am fortunate enough to be living & enjoying quite a comfortable and busy lifestyle. However, I know the amounts I am prepared to part with in order to enjoy the fruits of my labour. If an agent can save me thousands or even hundreds for a percentage, then I am very grateful and extremely happy. I could be earning many dollars while at the same time an agent is working to save me many more dollars. I view this as win/win.

spoken like a true believer misschiff. But in the real world it works like this. When looking for a car a lot of savvy guys will go out and hunt down a bargin and a lot will just go to the first dealer they see and demand a great deal. What your told your getting in the latter case and what you are actually getting is often two different things though. For instance, it is common practice in used car circles to sell the lemons to women because the salesmen know that the average woman doesn't know much about cars.

Now getting back to RE, the job of an agent, buyers or sellers, is to make the most money they can off a sale and this logically translates to the highest sale price they can manipulate. If you have 2 agents in the process of a home sale then of course you are going to be be paying a lot more then you otherwise might because both will want to make a good commission and if one is on commission and one on a flat rate then the latter will want a kickback from his associate the selling agent. The end result will be higher prices then would normally be realized. This is what happens when you complicate a system by adding layer upon layer of refinements. It appears you are getting a better service buy in reality you are getting a worse service. It's why taxs, as they grow more complex, grow ever higher. Why microsoft windows grows ever more unstable as it grows in complexity. It is why you probably work 50 hours a week when 10 years ago you worked 40 or less?

I don't let this trend concern me though because the global housing bubble is well into its death throes, and soon most of the RE agents will be back driving cabs and doing factory work. Which is where they all came from BTW. Even a Pig looks nice if you put a suit on it.