[hbosch]

Well, yeah, sure. Money goes from me, into the "middle of the table", and then everyone takes their share. It's important to say, though, that with or without my agent my buying price was going to be the same regardless... however, the seller may receive slightly less. I think in practice you'll find it difficult to approach the process with a mindset of "if I don't use an agent, the owner will give me a 3% discount".