Yesterday I had a call from a woman who had identified a property here in Denver, but since she had already "done fhe legwork and found the house" she wanted half the commission back, and she wanted help with the contract, plus shepherding it through to the end, at closing.

I don't work like that.  Identifying the property is the easiest part of the transaction.  Negotiating a contract and seeing the details of the transaction through to closing is the hard part, and the one with the most legal pitfalls for an agent.  Naturally, I turned down her offer for compensation

What I WILL do is work as a consultant for a fee.  My fee is negotiable, but only within reasonable limits.  I recently served as a contulant on a transaction where the demands weren't too bad.  I charged a flat fee for that one.  If someone wanted to negotiate an hourly fee, I'd be agreeable to that.

Normally the way I work is to collect my usual commission from the seller or the listing agent, and only if that isn't forthcoming, say when dealing with a For Sale By Owner (FSBO or fizzbo, as they're called in the trade) does the buyer have to pay anything.  But in all my years in real estate, no client has ever wound up paying the commision.

I can't help but wonder who these folks found to respresent them as an Exclusive Buyer's Agent.  Lots of agents will offer to do a transaction for almost nothing, but not many in the National Association of Exclusive Buyer's Agents (NAEBA).  The ones who do probably don't have a lot of business and will do anything to pick up $750 or so.  So the buyers probably will get an inexperienced agent to help which could cost them in the long run.