I used a DIY approach to locate and buy a house in Sarasota county in 1Q 2015. I looked at 19 houses in person and probably over 1000 on the internet. When I found a house I wanted to see in person using zillow.com or realtor.com, I contacted the listing agent directly (zillow.com will try to automatically assign you a buyer's agent; I always went over to realtor.com and found the listing agent instead). When it came time to negotiate a price, the offers and counter-offers went through the listing agent without a buyer's agent in the pipeline. I hired a closing agent to handle the paperwork associated with closing the deal. The listing agent was delighted because he didn't have to share the commission with a buyer's agent.