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The US convention is for the seller to pay the realtor (2.5% by convention). Hence the advertised price is understood to have the realtor costs baked in.
As for paying the realtor his dues, I was really thinking I would be doing the realtor a favor. First, I knew what house I wanted from the beginning, before contacting the realtor. It was a mass-produced newly constructed house which I found. He also had a script that sent me some listings, and at his insistence I selected some houses from those which we toured, but in the end we went with the mass-produced one I initially picked from redfin. He seemed knowledgeable about houses, but he didn't do much as far as helping me find a house. I found my mass-produced newly constructed house on redfin, and just needed someone to guide me through the process and collect the 2.5% fee, which on this $400k house would have been around $10000. Like what the fuck, $10000 isn't enough to spend a couple of evenings showing me houses, and do some paperwork? He wanted to squeeze more money out of me? If I wanted to I could go directly through the developer and bypass the buyer real estate agent all together, but I would feel bad doing this, because even though he was useless, it would feel too much like I am taking advantage of him, so I just can't buy the house now.
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