Jay I thought there were some discount broker services that allow your home to be on MLS for a lot cheaper.

I'm sure there are some options available. I know some realtors will ignore those listings out of principle. I think the best you might find is to cut your commission from the standard 6% down to 4% by finding a listing agent who will keep 1% and offer the buyer's agent the standard 3%.

Maybe I should use these money saving principles in the rest of my life. When I go to pay my restaurant bill - Ask the owner to see the actual prices of the food, figure the actual time the chef spent in cooking my food, then negotiate what I will pay. I figure I could also save some cash on the tip. $60 dinner X .20 % = $12. The waitress spent maximum of 10 minutes on me. That's $72 per hour. What a rip off! I could have gotten that drink refill on my own. Man, restaurants screw you. They spend way too much money advertising. Their volume must be too low. Too many restaurants. Hopefully the market will correct itself and drive some of these restaurants out of business so we can have lower prices. We all know less competition equals lower prices.

are you aware of the number of restaurants that go out of business every year?

THe great thing is we now live in the information age, and people that profited based on other people's ignorance, and lack of access to information, are going to be in a world of hurt. Realtors are among those people.

Someone making $72 I can live with. I've paid plumbers $200 an hour, which is tough, but sometimes you're stuck. I paid a doctor $1,200 for a 20 minute surgery. That's tough, too, but what can you do? I'm not going to pay a loan officer $6,000 for a day's worth of work if I have other options.

Lending Tree doesn't "publish" anything. You request quotes on their site and lenders reply direct to you with their rate bids.

Why lenders don't necessarily get their "pound of flesh" at closing: from a WSJ article...

"Lending institutions are fighting to win business from consumers with good credit, many of which may be hesitant to buy, refinance or move up in the current housing market.

"It's a very competitive marketplace," says Terry Francisco, a spokesman for Bank of America Corp. in Charlotte, N.C. "We watch our competition closely."

One of the reasons banks want to make conventional loans is that consumers often end up with several products from the lender, including savings accounts, credit cards and checking accounts.

"We find that someone who has a mortgage with us will have about five products in addition to the mortgage," says Mr. Francisco.
...

The current demand for home buyers with good credit makes it even more important for potential borrowers to shop around for the best deals. Individuals should check with their local credit union and bank, especially if they have existing accounts with those institutions.
"

You're closing in two weeks or getting ready to make an offer in two weeks? Closing in two weeks, you must already have your loan started, I would think. If you're getting ready to buy, I would suggest just what I said in first post in this thread. Tell him you have great credit, all the documentation ready, and this is a slam dunk loan for him. You're going to call people to see who will give you the best deal. Tell him you understand yield spread and want to go over the good faith in detail. Tell him you're calling 4 or 5 loan officers to see who will give you the best deal and let him offer an amount. If you get a guy doing it for a point, the next guy might offer to do it for a half point.

Possible. But probably takes away your negotiating position.