Seems to me you should go tour the property with your buyers agent. If if you do not have an agreement signed. you want to have someone that works for you. Remember a buyers agent is paid by the sellers at settlement. So this is not going to cost you a dime unless the sellers agents and the sellers refuse to pay a Realtor commission. In that case you will need to pay the realtor. However you will need to pay a Attorney if you deceide to go it alone with the FSBO. No way can you trust and depend on the FSBO to guide you through this transaction. So there is no free ride! Do the right thing and use your agent. the agent can pull comps and reveiew the price with you and make sure you are paying the true price on the home. Also a attorney is in the office doing the paper work and that is his or her job. But your Realtor has the experance to show you this property and point out what needs to be addressed as far as inspections and repair. Do you think the FSBO will?

I want to point out that the real estate agent may not realize that there has been a price change on the FSBO. A listed property has rules that govern how quickly the price is updated on the MLS. A FSBO has no one ruling the accuracy of their marketing.

Is your agent still actively seeking properties for you?

Situations like this are why I am a strong proponant of the Buyer Agency Agreement.

In my area, it would go like this:

The Sellers list the house with a Broker/Agent (hopefully a Realtor.(r))
The Buyers first find and view the home with their Agent (again hopefully a Realtor.(r))
The Sellers cancel the listing, or it expires. For 6 more months, if a Buyer comes to the Seller because of signs, advertising, or actions of the Broker/Agent, then the Seller owes the Listing Broker a commission.

Therefore, if this home was listed, and an agent showed it to you, then the Listing agent is owed a commission.

So the Buyer's poor agent, who showed the home in good faith, and might even now be spending time and gasoline previewing & networking to find the Buyers a home, gets shut out, and doesn't get paid for any part of the work that he or she is doing on the Buyer's behalf.

And that agent wasted time & energy working with people who werent' committed to him, when he could have been working with someone that would have produced a payday.

That's why I always use a Buyer's Agency Agreement! If clients can't commit to working with me, then I won't commit to working for them. That way my clients get my undivided attention, because I'm not spending time with things that take my energy away!

I hope this works out well for everyone involved!

Just a thought, but how would you feel if you were the agent who showed the house and then a couple of months later your customer undercut your salary? Think Jesus, Chris. What would Jesus do?

On the legal side, though, the listing agreement probably protects the agent since she already showed you the house. So you might was well use her negotiating skills since she's going to be paid anyway.

It may be that the seller has (or had) a listing agreement with a real estate broker, and that a fee would still be due to the agent. The details of that would be spelled out in the listing contract between seller and their agent The SELLER MAY still owe the agent a commission but, judging only on the information that you have supplied, it does not seem likely that you would.

A matter of clarification: You say you saw the house with 'our' real estate agent, yet you have "had no signed agreements with our real estate agent". Are they in reality your agent, or the sellers agent??
It is my understanding, at least in Pennsylvania, that a real estate licensee is not 'our'- (buyers') agent if you have not signed a buyers agency agreement with them. That being said, they may not be working on your behalf at all(at least not yet), but for the seller!!.
Hope that helps clear up the issue.

Chrissy - You are stating that you never had any type of contract with the agent to represent you in a transaction, but you also mention that it was "your real estate agent." If you never signed anything you may have no obligation to work with the REALTOR and pay a fee. However, the FSBO seller may have a contractual obligation to his REALTOR for introducing you to the property. This is knows as a "protection period" in our Pa. agreements. I am only familiar with Pennsylvania contracts. You may want to seek competent legal council to see how it works in New York.

It is not against the law, to my knowledge. Make sure to walk with your head up and eyes open, though. I am not a fan of FSBO. NOT BECAUSE I AM A REALTOR (had to clarify, because the whole world would jump on me if I didn't)

I had 2 people in my neighborhood sell FSBO 3 years ago to unsuspecting buyers. Both homes sold for $15,000 above market value (at that time!). Now, both buyers are trying to move. Because the sellers in both of those cases basically OVERSOLD their homes, the current owners are screwed (excuse the French).

Make sure the value is there.

PS to the above question, the FSBO price now has dropped 20,000! Where our real estate agent is still showing it as the higher amount, that is the only reason why we are interested in seeing it without our agent, I assume the owner is trying to sell it without paying the agent fee, which saves both him and us money, but just wanted to make sure this isn't against the law?

Why don't you go back and see it again with your Realtor? If I were you I would want someone working in my best interest, plus an arms length negotiation usually goes smoother than between 2 principles.

I would be more worried about the legal actions done to you by the FSBO seller than the Realtor.

I doubt the Realtor has any recourse, but it doesn't sound like you trust or value your agent that much anyway.