I know how a traditional home purchase works in that when he represents me as a buyer's agent he gets (usually) half of a 5-6% commission on the price of the home I buy.

Welllllllllllll, there are ways to figure something to get you more, but you'd need to have your friend threaten to get a broker to represent him and they may be more generous.Problem is a lot of listing brokers are pretty much straight-out a-holes when it comes to comm splits.

However, keep in mind there are lots of Agents on these pages as well who represent Buyers so you may want to say "Principals only" if the Seller wants to avoid paying a Buyers Agent fee.

If I represent both, I don't need a super high commission to get the deal done. 

Housing prices haven't risen a lot historically, but rent rates run strong and the demand is there.Also, PC build community represent!

I currently have a listing and a buyer came to me with no agent asking if I'd represent him if I were to give him a 1% credit of my commission.

Originally, I became interested in becoming a Realtor to be able to represent myself in buying investment properties but I fell in love with this career!

@Napoleon TitschingerThe only issue with getting your real estate license is the conflict between getting a good deal at a 40% or whatever discount, and representing a seller.

I knew we would lose money by urging her to sell (no, we did not represent her on the sale.  

If you only plan to represent yourself and not work with other clients to buy/sell, do you need to work for a broker ?