[sakoht]

Repeating a note by others, having advice on navigating a large transaction is comforting. Even though I ultimately found the house I bought myself the guidance of my buyer’s agent through the process was invaluable. No regrets on him making good money for his efforts. Also, surprisingly, it didn’t feel odd for him to help me negotiate a lower price while his pay is based on the sale price. His business is based on referrals to my next friend who needs such help.

[OJFord]

If the fee structure was something like 1% list price + 50% (list - final), I could understand it as an 'I'm not used to negotiating, pay someone to do it for me' service.

(And I'm sure you could find someone to do that here if you wanted, especially for very high value properties, or by bespoke arrangement with some other real estate agent or salesman who's used to negotiating, but it's just not commonly done. I suppose for one thing you often end up paying more than the list price - and they might have to negotiate hard to get it for that, other times not at all. You'd need to somehow incentivise listing at a 'real' asking price (or penalise difference from it) I suppose.)

But the house-finding (and related apparent refusal to arrange viewing except through buying agent sometimes) and inversely aligned incentives seem strange to me.