Advice on a broker-related question

[Drew Palmer]

I am a buy/hold investor and was curious what people's take is on this.

I use a broker to find MLS related deals. He is a new broker and very hungry and willing to walk me into as many doors as I want. I trust him a lot and want to keep working with him. In addition to MLS deals I do my own direct marketing. Of course I market the fact that we can do the deal without broker's commissions as this helps the deal get done.

For deals that I source on my own, which takes a ton of work, I feel like I should not get my broker involved. That 3% can make a meaningful diff to the seller. However, I don't know what the standard is. I don't want to do anything to hurt the trust I've built up with this broker.

What is the "standard" for this type of situation?

[Patrick Snyder]

I don't know what the "standard" is, but I have an agent who knows that looks for deals (buying and selling) on my own and she doesn't care. I would never cut her out if she has involvement, but I'm not obligated to use her services for all my transactions. I only use her services, though, and do not have any other agents.