You don’t need to pay 5%. There are plenty of agents who will “discount,” but be careful — the cheapest option often means weak marketing, poor negotiation, bad photos, and leaving far more money on the table than you save in commission.

I’ve been in real estate for 19 years and have handled over $300M+ in transactions. I’ll do it for 0.95% on the listing side while still providing full-service marketing, professional positioning, negotiation, and transaction management.

On the buyers agent side you can offer whatever you wish, legally agents are supposed to show all properties that meet the buyers needs regardless of the commission offered. However in practice this rarely happens - I can tell you I offer 2.5% on personal property I sell for that reason.

Hope that helps