realtors (broker, house, buyers)

[captlemons]

Hi guys , can any one tell me how realtors work in the us, ie who pays them etc ,

[bbronston]

I am a realtor in Florida so I can comment on Florida. Generally, if you are listing a property, you will sign an exclusive right to list agreement with an agent's broker and that agreement will require you to pay X percent of the purchase price to the listing broker when they bring you a ready, willing, and able buyer. Technically, you don't have to actually close on the property to owe the fee but I think most brokers use the closing as the benchmark for the fee to be owed. Also in the listing agreement, you will authorize the listing broker to pay X percent of the selling price to a cooperating broker who might bring you a buyer. Now, if you are a buyer, that same listing agreement is the mechanism by which your agent's broker (and therefore your agent) will be compensated for helping you with your purchase so, in effect, the listing broker pays the selling broker and the selling broker pays the selling agent (your agent).
As a buyer, you might also be asked to sign a buyer-broker agreement where you agree to pay your agent's broker X percent (or X dollars) for helping you purchase a home, and that amount will be offset by whatever amount your broker receives from the listing broker. So, for example, you might agree to pay your broker 3% but you might purchase a property where the listing broker only pays 2.5% to the cooperating buyer's broker. In that case, you would be obligated to pay the additional .5% to your agent's broker. To my knowledge, most agents don't use this particular agreement, and when it is used, it is not used so much for collecting any differential in commission rates but mostly used as a way of keeping buyers true to their agent. If you consider that agents are simply small business operators who have nothing more than their time, effort, knowledge and service to 'sell', it can be extremely costly (not to mention frustrating) to work very hard trying to help a customer only to then discover that they walked into an open house without you and signed a contract. Having an agreement up front helps to solidify both parties' obligations to each other.
Although you didn't ask about agency relationships, I won't go into that but you should be aware that there are different types of agency.