[shostack]

Was your hope with this strategy that the double commission would cause the agent to steer the sale to you?

I see things about strategies like this, and then seriously question whether I feel agents in general have enough integrity to warrant leaving me out of the communication process as you propose.

[fatnoah]

Yes, that was definitely part of it. In the town we purchased in (near Boston suburb) the median home value is > $1 million, so that extra 2.5 percent is a lot of money.

In our last homebuying experience, we lost two houses to other buyers. In both cases, our offer was higher than the closing price by 5-10% BUT our buyer's agent was from a different agency than the sellers. In both of those cases, the people who got the house were represented by someone from the same agency as the seller.