Your real estate agent is not an expense to you as a buyer. This is one thing many buyers don’t realize. You don’t pay your realtor as a buyer. The seller pays the listing company. The listing company then pays a percentage to the affiliate. The affiliate then pays the real estate agent. When you plan to buy a home, you must pay the seller an interest payment. This amount is your way of telling the seller that you are serious about buying the home and that you are not going to earn the seller’s trust and then go and buy another home. The interest payment is usually held in an escrow account handled by the buyer’s real estate agent, title company, or escrow company.If you can’t get a mortgage or decide to back out of the contract, you may lose that deposit, depending on how your contract is worded. The amount of interest money varies but is usually between 1 and 5% of the purchase price.