[island_dude]

I bought my last house from a couple that had come off their agreement with the listing brokers. We decided to do it without involving the previous brokers. I had reasons for this. I was attempting to get an appointment to see the place by the broker and we got an interrogation about our suitability to buy. We told the broker to go to hell. The owner showed me the place. When we had signed our P&S the broker got wind of it and asserted that they were still owed a commission. They wanted the full 6% even though they had never even talked to me let alone showed the place or submitted an offer. The sellers offered to cave and gave them 3%. I pulled money out of my pocket to make the deal go since it was a lot of cash for them. The brokers still wanted the other 3% from me. I was not willing to pay anything given how I was treated (very nasty, with a strong sense of entitlement) and that they were not providing anything I needed. We got to the closing and the selling broker insisted on make a show of providing value. She was unprofessional and nasty to me. In fact she was nasty to my kid. During the closing she started reviewing the paperwork and found an inconsequential mistake. She started talking down to me in a rather nasty way ("Oh look... He marked down that there is a cook top when its a range! How stupid!"). She missed the fact that the sellers hadn't done required repairs and that we agreed to an escrow. I asked her if we should stop the sale over the issue that she was raising. She proceeded to start yelling at me about how hard she worked and was getting ripped off. I told her that we had agreed to a deal and I don't understand what her problem was. She was getting paid far more than she deserved. She would not shut up and I finally told the sellers (politely) that either she was going to leave or I was. She did eventually leave and the transaction proceeded smoothly. The broker was a friend of the wife of the seller. She proceeded to blame me for all of the unpleasantness. Honestly, in this case the brokers were a barrier to a good deal. The lady didn't bring the sale but she wanted to be paid for having to try to sell the house. I can't see how I am obligated to pay that much to someone who provided no services to me and actually stood in the way of my trying to buy the house.