I was recently hired and gived a relocation package from my new company. They provided a realtor's service and a house finding trip for me as part of the package.
I need to know what my obligation is this realtor. I was supposed to look at houses for 5 days but she only drove me around for a couple of hours a day for 3 days. We only looked at a few houses. and they were in an area she was familiar with, but I told her I was not interested in. She didnt' know anything about the areas I wanted to buy a house in, so she told me to go drive around and look myself, and when I find one I like to call her. I found all the houses myself on the internet, and I did find one that was for sale by owner that I really liked. Those sellers were only willing to pay 1 percent to a realtor. She told me if I bought it I would have to pay her the other 2 percent. Is this true? I never signed anything with her, and she isn't doing any work for me so why should I pay her that?

Why should I drive around looking for houses that I found on the internet by myself all day, and then pay a buyer's agent commision when i find one? Am I not understanding something? I never bought a house before so I don't want to be a jerk, but I also want to know what I should expect.
Thank you.

Over the years I've worked with several major relocation firms and my company is the local affiliate for two of the largest.

In Tennssee if you do not have a signed agency agreement with a real estate licensee that licensee is not your agent and you have no obligations to pay their fees for representing you in the purchase of a home or driving you around.

I think you're understanding things perfectly well; "Suzie" your real estate licensee is the one that doesn't understand.

"Suzie" hasn't done much for you and doesn't deserve to be paid much; you might offer to reimburse her for driving you around the areas you didn't want to live in or let her fill out the paperwork on the FSBO (For Sale By Owner) and take the 1% they're offering.

If you do that I would caution you to keep a close eye on "Suzie", and make sure she doesn't get in the way of the sale.

You also need to be sure and get a good home inspector to look at the house before you buy; in fact a satisfactory home inspection needs to be made a condition of the sale along with a termite and other customary inspections depending on what state you're buying in.

Be sure and report her job performance to your relocation coordinator to save someone else the same experience.

One final thing; if your new employer sent you to "Suzie" they may have an arrangement with her to pay them a referral fee for the opportunity to work with you so 25-35% of the commission MAY be going back to them. You might want to ask.

Thank you so much for your help. I really did feel bad about letting her go because she was a nice lady, but I lost my trust for her when she asked for that 2 percent in cash. Thanks again!

CASH!!! you forgot to mention that.

She was definitely fishing.

You should call her broker and tell him or her their agent was trying to screw them as well as the IRS.

I'm not sure what price range you are buying in, or how successful this agent is, but it doesn't sound like she was too interested in your business.

WOW! This agent went from harmless incompetence to criminal in one post!

Call her broker. She doesn't need to have a license.