Would you get to be hurt/mad at the family friend/agent if your B.I.L. had bought the crappy overpriced fixer. How do you know he wasn’t getting something for steering him that way.

That’s the trouble with family friend/agents, everyone has one, but not everyone’s friend is the best realtor.

I wouldn’t bring a buyer’s agent to a house I found myself, I’d pay a smaller amount for a professional to negotiate the deal, but the full 3% to write the offer? hell no, that 3% comes off the net when the seller evaluates the offers. So you are actually paying them 6k for two hours of work. If I had to make a list of people who I would pay 6k for two hours of work for me, only porn stars and surgeons would make that list.