Anyone bought a new house from the developer directly?

The local builder gave me 5% worth of upgrades free of charge because I did not bring a Realtor in. This is not as good as it sounds, but it is legal.

They would have had to pay the Realtor 5% 'real money' and maybe I could have gotten a kickback, maybe not, but that would have been illegal.

The builder gave is 5%, but in reality their cost was lower since they probably have a 40% to 100% markup on their options.

Both yout question and the answer above illustrate why you need a Realtor negotiating this deal for you.

You are asking how much to offer off asking price. Wrong question. The value of a home is based on the sales price of comparable or similar homes within the last 6 months or so. Asking price is what the seller wants. The comps, however, are what it's worth.

Not bringing a Realtor because you want to "save" 5% or so is likely to cost you more than you saved. You really aren't saving anything because you basically are not paying for a service that you are not getting. So what's the savings? My buyers get way more than they would have saved in paying commission. I get upgrades for free and a reduced price.

Plus, most likely that commission is still being charged. Most listing agreements are written so that the full commission goes to the listing agent, with half of it going to the buyer's agent only if they have an agent. Otherwise, the list agent keeps it. Look at your HUD statement -- I bet you will see a full commission in it.

Be smart and get your own agent.

They should have acompany that they are working with that can negotiate different things request up grades request they pay apart if not all of the closing cost because if no ones buys then these are pretty doll houses