Even for the development side they got a house to develop (that was on market) it was reduced 10% off the list price including more within escrow through myself/team representing them.All that experience and even being licensed before put them into a "mindset," you could say that they do not want to step over a dollar to pickup a penny.

Now it sounds like you are in a LCOL area if $400,000 is high end so maybe brokers need to represent themselves but in HCOL locations a broker is going to not waste time selling his own properties when he can make more money doing his job.I hope your clients don't follow your example of using flat fee brokers. 

However, a buddy of mine got a random call one day from an attorney who was representing one of his former tenants.  

I represented myself as my buyers agent.

Both section8 rentals had the representative argue on the price and bring it down a little when I think the pricing we had was fair and was below what was listed on GoSection8.com. 

Found a mis-represented duplex walking distance to a college and bought it.

I know I commented on your other post, but I will show this one some love as well since It has a little more info as far as what you are thinking and I will just represent TX since that is what I know.I am in Killeen, TX, and this area you can buy a 4-plex anywhere from $200k-$260k.

I am now looking to buy a primary residence in bay area and wondering if I can represent myself in the deal and split the transaction fee directly with listing agent?

For example, here's a map showing the current median income and five-year income growth in the beach cities:The colors represent current median income, and the size of the arrows represents median income growth over the last five years.You'll notice that the beach cities are very green (ie, wealthy) and have large arrows.

If you find a seller who is looking to sell his property, there is not enough margin for to wholesale, there's not enough margin to flip, and you're not interested in holding the property as a rental, then you could offer to represent the seller as their agent.