Sticky Situation. Pay realtor commission n or not?

[Heston McBride]

I’d like some feedback on how the bp community feels about my situation. I looked at a home w/ realtor but know the owner very well and had discussed it previously.

I plan to put in an offer on Monday for a rental property I really like. I know the owner and listing agent of the home very well but there’s some gray area as to the selling agent and the commission. I was looking at a different property with a selling agent and decided while I was near the neighborhood, I wanted to take a look at this property in question. I went by the property with the agent and made a run through.

This is my first home purchase ever so I’m an absolute newbie. Basically after I spoke further with the owner of the property about the home, he suggested I just put in my offer with the listing agent.

My question here is how should I handle putting in this offer? At some point I would like to expand and gain more rentals in the area so I don’t want to upset this selling agent but at the same time I’m very comfortable putting in a offer by myself plus I honestly had known and visited with the owner about the property previous to looking at it with the selling agent.

there’s a 3% commission in question on a 150k property.

Hope this makes some sense. Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.

[Ted L.]

I’m not an agent so I’m not going to give an opinion as to what is legal or ethical to agents. It’s very simple. The selling agent took time to show you the property. It’s absolutely the right thing to do to have them make the offer on your behalf. Trying to cut out an agent’s commission is very short sighted.

Furthermore, if the listing agent knew that the selling agent showed you the property and is on board with cutting them out of the commission, what kind of person are they? Are they really someone you want to even do business with?