We are in the first steps of looking for a house.
We still don't have the down payment (depending on selling another
property out of the country) but we want to do some price research and
figure out what we really need versus what we want before we go out to
open houses and right now going out to open houses would be more like
as tire-kickers than anything else.
While looking around for houses matching our needs in the area we want
one of the real estate agents asked if we were working with an agent
to buy our house.
I didn't even know we needed an agent to *buy* a house.
What would be the benefits of having an agent and what is the average
compensation for agents when buying a house?

Thank you,

FayeC