Not normally at that point. They might pay your agent a small referral fee like a quarter or a percent, but not regular commission. Not unless you told agent upfront that you have a buyer's agent. If you had told them that, they wouldn't be trying to get you to let them act as an intermediary/dual agent.

As long as you didn't sign anything you're free to choose whomever you want to represent you.

on my current home, we made appt with listing agent, came back next day (by appt) with our buyer's agent. No problem, they both got a commission

Correct. We aren't working with any buyer's agent as we prefer to search the MLS ourselves and deal direct with the listing agent ourselves. We aren't necessarily opposed with working with the listing agent as a dual agent in this transaction only as we're pretty competent at pulling recent comps, negotiating and such but we think the current sales price on the home in question is a bit high given the recent comps all being 50K-75K less for similar properties/homes. Since she presumably advised them to list at that price, it puts us in the position to argue why we think the market doesn't support the inflated price. The property is question has been on the market for nearly 350 days. One price drop of 50K 6 months ago and none since...

I wouldn't assume the LA advised and/or agrees with the list price. Is 350 DOM, normal for your area? Can't imagine an agent willingly settling for this. amount of time. I'd stick with the LA, it is sometimes easier to get good information dealing direct.

I'm not sure of the average days on market in our area. Good houses priced right seem to go quickly. We sold without a realtor last summer and our house was on less than 2 months. This is an oddball house of sorts in that it is midcentury historical and on luxurious grounds (pool/poolhouse, pavers all around, custom stone walls) and needs some updated bathrooms, paint, wallpaper removal but seemingly good bones and in an area where most of the homes are either from the late 1970s/80s boom when the area developed or brand-new construction. The new construction goes for about the same as this home so I think it needs to appeal to a certain audience (us!) and its priced a bit higher than its newer, shinier competition in developments etc.

If you are an experienced buyer I'd stick with the LA, and be direct, honest, but never give more information than absolutely necessary.

If the listing agent has been dealing with this house for 350 days she wants it sold. That could help you out as she will be trying to get the seller to accept a reasonable offer. The seller pays the commission out of the sales proceeds and the agent may be willing to reduce her commission to get the deal closed. Since you know the comparables make an offer that is fair and let the realtor deal with getting the seller down to what the property is really worth. Be willing and able to walk away if the price doesn't come down to what the property is worth. You might get a call back in a few days or weeks if you do walk away. Sounds to me like the seller is unrealistic. Remember the seller sets the sales price not the agent. Sellers set prices against the recommendation of the realtor all the time. No realtor wants to sit on an unsold listing for 350 days.

You can choose the agent you want.

You can bring a Buyers Agent if you want to but the two agents might have a fight over procuring cause. The situation you describe happens all the time and it does not usually start an offer/transaction off well. The Listing Agent can deny your Buyers Agent a commission and take it to Arbitration. Commission is not part of a Residential Sales Contract but not too many Realtors are willing to work for possibly zero money.

If you do have a Buyers Agent (or any other Realtor) you need to tell them about looking at the home with the Listing Agent right up front. It is usually an agent/Broker call how this is handled. I know many who will deny a commission completely and others who will gladly accept the offer.

The Listing Agent is usually working in the Sellers best interest and denying a commission to another agent is probably not in the Sellers best interest.

There's more to buyer rep &to procuring cause than just showing a property.

If buyer wants another agent, & listing agent refuses to present buyer's offer, sellers can complain to the Commission, as seller's agent is not putting seller's interests above of her own, & buyers can complain because listing agent is not treating them fairly.

If property is listed in MLS & seller's agent presents offer but stipulates that buyer's agent is not to be paid, then seller's agent is in violation of MLS rules that state that offers of commission are unconditional.

been through something sort of like this, in a backward way, myself.

A couple contacted me, said they'd been shown my listing but the agent didn't want them to buy it; he wanted them to buy one of the properties he owned.

It turned out that the husband, who was self-employed, had expressed concern that he might have trouble getting a loan because he wrote off so much expense;

the agent owned many properties & liked to finance them himself.

The couple wrote a letter saying that they wanted me to write their contract because the agent who had first shown them the house had become obstructive, had not wanted to write the contract, had not given them information they had requested regarding financing, & they flatly stated that they wouldn't have bought the house had they been forced to use him.

Buyer is free to pick any representative (s)he wants.

Since she presumably advised them to list at that price, it puts us in the position to argue why we think the market doesn't support the inflated price. The property is question has been on the market for nearly 350 days. One price drop of 50K 6 months ago and none since...

Not necessarily. A RE agent can only advise the seller what they should price the house at. In the end it's the seller who sets the price of the house. Many times a seller has an unrealistic idea of what their home is worth, or they need the money to buy something else, or...

Make an offer to the agent for what you consider a fair price. It's the only thing you can do.

On paper it would seem that going with the listing agent, who would get the full commission from the sale would be the obvious route to go since she has sat on this property with her client for almost a year and surely wants it to close more than anyone else except her client, and has probably worked her tail off trying to get it sold and may well deserve the full commission, but for some reason, unknown at this point, a deal has not been made on this house and it still sits unsold, and the only for sure common denominators in this scenario are the client and the listing agent. If you come in and become the third party in this act I sure hope you are a smooth talker because it doesn't look like anyone else has been able to make anything happen. Unless the house is truly that unique and people are just not even willing to look or make an offer, which could be the case, it might be nice to have a very seasoned, savvy agent on your side who is known for being an amazing negotiator. Why represent yourself when for the same price you could have someone on your side who is known for getting deals done.