I thought 'buyer's agent' was a weird Canadian thing, ypu do it in the US too?

Seems such a con. And your links imply it's built in to the system, there's always a 6% charge for that (otherwise why would they charge and give back half).

Short of multi-millionaires looking for an interesting fifth home without caring where it is, I don't see why you'd want to try to explain your requirements to someone else, have them sort of get it, show you things that aren't right for reasons you forgot to give or can't quite explain, and pay for the privilege.

In the UK we just find somewhere we like the look of, arrange viewing with the (sellers') estate agent, and potentially make an offer. What would a buyer's agent do for me except increase the price/decrease what I can afford?

Repeating a note by others, having advice on navigating a large transaction is comforting. Even though I ultimately found the house I bought myself the guidance of my buyer’s agent through the process was invaluable. No regrets on him making good money for his efforts. Also, surprisingly, it didn’t feel odd for him to help me negotiate a lower price while his pay is based on the sale price. His business is based on referrals to my next friend who needs such help.

If the fee structure was something like 1% list price + 50% (list - final), I could understand it as an 'I'm not used to negotiating, pay someone to do it for me' service.

(And I'm sure you could find someone to do that here if you wanted, especially for very high value properties, or by bespoke arrangement with some other real estate agent or salesman who's used to negotiating, but it's just not commonly done. I suppose for one thing you often end up paying more than the list price - and they might have to negotiate hard to get it for that, other times not at all. You'd need to somehow incentivise listing at a 'real' asking price (or penalise difference from it) I suppose.)

But the house-finding (and related apparent refusal to arrange viewing except through buying agent sometimes) and inversely aligned incentives seem strange to me.

We bought for the first time in 2021, when interest rates were at the very bottom and the market was absolutely insane. The only reason we got a house (and one we like!) was because we had a really good agent who helped us navigate the market.

Doing it a second time in a saner market, I would be more inclined to do it ourselves and negotiate a 3% discount on the house. But successfully buying a house at rock bottom interest rates was totally worth the cost.

I'm not sure I understand, you had an existing relationship somehow, and they said 'hey guys, really think you should buy right now' or something?

Hmm looks like they've changed their pricing model. Interesting

Possibly! That definitely wasn't the model I expected them to have based on their ads.

I think they might be able to act as a general buyer's agent

But you don't have to hire them for that even if the seller is using them