People use an agent to buy a house, because it is free to them. The seller pays the fees for the seller's agent, who splits the commission (typically 5% nowadays) with the buyer's agent. In general the buyer gains nothing by going without an agent.
There are some buyers' agents that charge a fee. The theory behind it is this type of agent will work for you and not for the seller (since there is an inherent conflict of interest for the buyer's agent; the more you pay for the house the more he or she earns in commission).
Why do these strange practices exist? Because of a very powerful realtor lobby.
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