Can being principled get in the way of achieving the important things in life?

Today I got very close on making an offer on a house. I had a 4 hour discussion with my realtor, we went over all the documents, but there was one little thing that kept me from signing. Before house hunting, family and coworkers had told me that the seller covers the cost of the realtor. But when I was talking to the realtor he told me as part of the purchase I would have to pay him a 0.5% fee out of pocket (his reasoning was that his rate was 3% but the seller pays only 2.5%).

In theory, this shouldn't matter to me because it's such a small percentage of the home and if I don't buy this home now I will likely have to renew my overpriced apartment lease, which will be more money than this 0.5% fee he wants. But it just really pisses me off that he was pulling this bullshit and I didn't want to support his bullshit so I backed out.

My intolerance for my realtor's bullshit prevented me from getting a house. It would have been great to be a homeowner who doesn't pay rent and live lease-to-lease, but I threw it away because I had such low tolerance for bullshit from the realtor. I wonder if this same force is what is preventing me from getting a girlfriend. Maybe if I had higher tolerance for society's bullshit I would have gotten a girlfriend. For example, most men give into the bullshit practice of trying to be entertaining to every young woman they come into contact with. I don't do this because it's fucking bullshit and girls don't deserve to be entertained. But maybe in trying to act justly I am shooting myself in the foot, because by refusing to entertain women I become a creep who can't talk to girls, just like how by refusing to give the realtor this 0.5% fee he doesn't deserve, I am depriving myself of a house.

Considering you didn’t get the house you want, the answer is obvious

The world is full of bullshit by design. And there’s going to be more bullshit as the world declines

If the realtor was working specifically for you to help you find the right house it would make sense for you to pay part of the fee.

The US convention is for the seller to pay the realtor (2.5% by convention). Hence the advertised price is understood to have the realtor costs baked in.

As for paying the realtor his dues, I was really thinking I would be doing the realtor a favor. First, I knew what house I wanted from the beginning, before contacting the realtor. It was a mass-produced newly constructed house which I found. He also had a script that sent me some listings, and at his insistence I selected some houses from those which we toured, but in the end we went with the mass-produced one I initially picked from redfin. He seemed knowledgeable about houses, but he didn't do much as far as helping me find a house. I found my mass-produced newly constructed house on redfin, and just needed someone to guide me through the process and collect the 2.5% fee, which on this $400k house would have been around $10000. Like what the fuck, $10000 isn't enough to spend a couple of evenings showing me houses, and do some paperwork? He wanted to squeeze more money out of me? If I wanted to I could go directly through the developer and bypass the buyer real estate agent all together, but I would feel bad doing this, because even though he was useless, it would feel too much like I am taking advantage of him, so I just can't buy the house now.

Perhaps as an exercise in ruthlessness I should see if I can hire another real estate agent to sell me the house without charging me and ditch the current guy. Ruthlessness could be a useful skill to have as far as becoming a cult leader goes.

You were probably better off going through the more established realtors, who almost certainly would not have pulled that crap on you.

Anyway, you were right to back out. Too bad you're not this smart with girls.