If buyer-seller can't agree on $, will agents sacrifice their %?

[Jason V.]

Buyer gave me a low-ball offer.  Then they came up to $95k all cash, saying that's the best they could do.  OK.... Well, I said $99k was the lowest I would go, considering the buyer's agent commission % is really coming off the top, right?  That would leave me with $96k.  I've determined I could budge another $1.5k, but I need $94.5k after everything's said and done.  Period.  So that means $97.5k is the lowest offer I can accept.

Even if the buyer & seller won't budge, the buyer's agent could simply agree to a 0.5% commission, close the deal, and buyer & seller would both be happy.  But there's really a whole range of percentages that the buyer's agent could agree to that are likely NEVER considered to be on the chopping block.  If a buyer's agent could drop to 1.4% commission in this case, then the buyer would only need another $900 which seems reasonable.  Everybody would be sacrificing to make the deal work.  Does anybody ever try negotiating the agent commissions when you're within a couple percent price difference??

I've come down as far as I realistically can.  $10k below asking.  Is asking the buyer to come up $1000, and the buyer's agent to come down $1,000 too much to ask for?  I mean... really, it comes down to how invested the buyers agent actually has been.  How much work did they really do?  What is their time worth?  $35/hr for 56hours = $1,960.  Buyer coming up $1,500 to cover that and buyers agent dropping commission to 2% could save her from another 56 hours of work...

Like I said, tho... there's a whole range of variable percentages that get us all to my rock bottom price.  Can I get anymore outside the box than this?!?  I'd imagine most negotiations aren't this tight.