Caleb Yamanaka's Q&A

The link you provided has nothing to do with your earlier point and has nothing to do with what you seem to have gleaned from that thread.one specific broker was stating he wouldn't take less than 3%, because "you get what you pay for", and thus no one else should either, even though some realtors stated they would take the 2% if that was what was in the seller's contract.In the thread that you referenced the Broker arguing for the 3% stated more then once that if the Buyer had signed an Exclusive Buyer's Agreement with the Agent and had agreed to pay the 3% then the Buyer should pay the 3%.  He also stated in that thread that if there was no agreement signed then the Buyer should not pay the 3% and the Buyer's Agent should just accept the 2% which was the commission split.

That is why they object so strongly to low bids, and why they keep stating that if they don't get paid at least 3% commission (even if the contract states only 2%) that you won't get the quality service they offer since you ONLY "get what you pay for".I am glad somethings do not change.  The statement in bold seems purely baseless and something that you can neither prove nor disprove.  Yet you state is as though it were fact.  I have never seen a transaction in which the stated split on commission was 2% and the Buyer's Agent demanded 3%.  idiotic.

There are no sites that will give you a value of any specific property.There are 3 types of valuation that I use (each invidivually weighted depending on the property or sometimes not applicable at all).1) Income Approach2) Sales Comparison Approach3) Replacement CostThere are probably other approaches out there, but to value commercial you should have at least some sort of understanding of using these valuation tools.

sounds fishy

As for the "you pay your agent" , "I pay my agent" model you already have that with some very large commercial brokerage houses who take this approach.If I were to be a guessing man maybe you will not see this used in the residential arena, because for better or for worse it is a numbers game for the large residential brokerages (who would be the only companies to truly benefit by this approach, by effectively eliminating the small brokerages).

The commish gets lumped into the closing costs and built into the buyers loan......LC,That is incorrect.  The commish is part of the agreed upon purchase price.  Where as the closing costs are in addition to the Purchase Price.  Oh, and when you use these discount brokers you pay them directly,The question with Discount Brokers is... will they survive?  I have yet to see any staying power with discount brokerages.  I see more listings with Discount Brokerages, but not more sales, and that is the key... if they can't move properties, eventually they will fail.I actually see the opposite in that there are much more being offered to the Buy Side Agents, either larger splits or Bonus for sale.

I will present my offer and stipulate the that 6% commish not be included in the HUD1 or paid from any funds that me buyer brings to the table......I'm not sure this scenario makes any sense.  First (in Hawaii anyway) the Buyer's HUD-1 doesn't contain any reference to the commission.  It is shown as a Debit to the Seller.  If you agree on "x" price you have to bring "x" to the table.  At that point how does it effect you either way if funds are dispersed from Seller to Agent or not?  You still have to bring "x" to the table regardless.why should I include that in the price and pay interest on that for 30 years when it doesn't add any value to my home.   If the Seller has an Agent, no matter how you cut it you will be paying a price based on the Seller's cost to pay their Agent.  If it is in escrow or out of escrow the cost to the represented Seller is still there and therefore will be reflected, in one way or another, in the final accepted purchase price.

You should speak to a Real Estate Attorney.  You probably want an Attorney who specializes with contracts.

ask them too?

I've used Costar and LoopNet and enjoy them for what they are, but neither is anything like Zillow.