I suppose once it becomes norm, everyone will see it as norm and go along. I do agree with you on being turned off by initial interaction being a rep form. They

I suppose once it becomes norm, everyone will see it as norm and go along. I do agree with you on being turned off by initial interaction being a rep form. They're pretty easy to void. The various RE lobbyists are pretty strong and continually pushes for laws like your discussing to essentially force people into utilizing agents. I have to get creative to get the commission into my pocket when I don't use agents. First, the other side usually does have an agent and explaining to them that I want the commission and it's already a sunk cost is usually a nightmare. I do it at the end, because otherwise it impacts negotiations "but your keeping the commissions already". (No I'm talking to you, doing the work of an agent, so I should get paid just like you are; it doesn't cost your seller anything more than the transaction costs they were already planning - in reality, I know it's because the sell side hears no agent and thinks "I get to keep it all"). In my state, it says only licensed RE brokers and attorneys can collect commissions. I'm neither. But we also have a clause in the law that allows commission rebates. So, I typically just pay an attorney a small flat fee to collect the commission and rebate it back to me. It can be a pain but then I realized I don't have to tell the sell side anything, I now have a standing agreement with my attorney who will collect the buy side commission and subtract out the flat fee part and rebate the rest to me. I just put his info on the offer as my agent and give him a heads up a few days before close. It works pretty well.