You seem well on the way to a successful brokerage career and still living at home with low or no bills is the way to start that scaleable but commission only life. 

That buyer agent commission is advertised on the MLS.

Hi, I have found a tenant for my commercial condo unit who is a friend of the family. I need to hire a broker to process the application (with supporting information), counsel me on useful amendments to the AIR form l...

I like to says it's akin to asking the agent to 1) wait on their commission or 2) doing MORE work or being hassled for said commission.  

Anyone advocating for this strategy you're suggesting makes substantial commissions which I view as a conflict of interest.

I did take a commission on this deal on the buy side.

As a PM, I would be worried if a new owner did not ask me at least some of the following:- Company Specifics: first question should be are they licensed (how many properties do you manage, what type/class of properties do you manage, how many property managers on the team, how many years have they been in operation)- Pricing (what is the cost to manage the property (ies), is there a leasing fee (commission structure), is there an onboarding fee, is there an early termination cost, are there ad-hoc costs for maintenance, tenant screening, or miscellaneous costs - such as to appear in court if you have an eviction)- Service offerings (do you have a maintenance team, do you come equipped with a list of contractors/vendors, do you offer the software and portal access for tenants/owners, etc.)- Financial Services (you (owner) should think about what you want the PM to handle, if it is everything from paying bills to insurance procurement to P&L statements then ask that, if you don't want the PM so heavily involved in financials and just more on the surface level of the operations of the property then that is okay too!

With each home selling for around $250K, the selling commissions add up to $1.25 million (at 2.5%).

I have seen this get ugly for people who end up being forced to move/sell and take a deep loss or struggle to FSBO because they can't pay commissions.2.)

Most likely the seller will pay their commission, so you would get their representation for free.