Going unrepresented to save the commission and missing the inspection deadline is a case worth studying

A few of the assumptions in this deal are worth separating, because two of them are common and one of them is just wrong in most states.

Whether a seller saves money when a buyer is unrepresented depends entirely on the listing agreement. Some are written as a single total to the listing brokerage with sharing left to the broker's discretion, in which case the seller's cost is the same either way and there's nothing to give back. Others are written so the total drops when no cooperating broker is involved, and some include a dual variable rate provision that spells out the two different figures. You can't know which one you're facing without asking, and since August 17, 2024 you also can't look up what a listing is offering a buyer's broker on the MLS, so the only path is a direct written question before you write.

The agency point is the one that varies most by state. In most states a listing agent owes fiduciary duties to the seller and only limited duties to an unrepresented buyer, typically honesty and disclosure of certain material facts, and the exact scope, including whether written disclosure of that status is required, is set by state license law. Being pleasant and prompt is not representation.

On the deadline, contract time computation is defined by the contract itself, and whether "days" means calendar or business days, and when the clock starts, differs by form and by state. That is precisely the kind of clause where a flat-fee attorney review is cheap. Nothing here substitutes for one.

The underlying trade is real. Skipping representation saves a fee that a seller may or may not have been funding. It also transfers deadline and disclosure risk onto you, and that risk isn't priced at zero.

The commission thing is a side plot. You lost 6,200 to a calendar, and that is fixable for about 400 dollars. The standard practice on an unrepresented purchase is a flat fee attorney review before signing, one to three hundred in most markets, whose only job is to read the dates and the contingency mechanics back to the buyer in plain English. Then every date from the executed contract goes into a calendar the same day with a reminder 48 hours prior, and the trigger gets written next to each one. "Objection due 5 business days from inspection report, report received 3/14, due 3/21." Where the trigger is ambiguous, as yours was, the buyer emails the listing agent and asks them to confirm the deadline date in writing. They almost always answer, and now that answer is on the record. On the price: asking the seller to cut 6,000 because you have no agent only works if you make it a term of the offer and their listing agreement actually drops. Ask their agent in writing, before you write, whether the total commission is reduced when there is no cooperating broker. If the answer is no, then there is no saving to negotiate over and you should stop trying to price it in. If the answer is yes, put the reduction in the offer at your number and let them counter. The part worth keeping from your post is that you were right about the house. That is rarer than knowing the form. Buy the form knowledge for a flat fee and you keep the advantage you already have.