[Sliver]

Demented Reality, the best thing to do is negotiate the realtor's commission upfront. I also think paying a percentage of the sale price of the house to somebody for what can amount to a few hours of work is insane.

Every deal I've done I've made sure I don't pay full commission. Especially since I prefer to write my own feature sheet (and my wife designed it), MLS ad, etc. I also like searching MLS myself, not having my realtor vet things for me.

As for negotiating, I find it painful having to go through somebody on that, but I basically just made him say what I wanted. In the end he did earn what I paid him - I need him to get on MLS, enter houses conveniently, he handled all the paperwork, etc. But at full price I would have felt totally ripped off.

I think it depends a lot on the client. My realtor had to put maybe a couple of days total into my file to both sell my old house and buy my new one. I think he took us on about five showings (we knew exactly what we wanted and where). I can see how less decisive people could monopolize a realtor's time, need everything spoon fed to them, etc., which starts to make the standard commission schedule a lot more fair.

On my next house purchase I'm going to find a realtor that will work on an hourly rate, capped at the standard commission rate. I think that would save me even more money, and I'd still make it worth the realtor's time.