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.