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Would we owe our realtor a commission in this situation?
We sold our house at the beginning of July. We didn't find one that we wanted to buy, so we are renting. We met with a realtor who helped us during the time that our house was under contract, so we worked with her for probably 5-6 weeks. We never signed anything, but do have somewhat of a verbal agreement that she is our realtor. She didn't show us many houses (I think only 2), but she did do quite a bit of legwork - sending out letters to people in our desired area, etc., trying to find us a house before we closed on our old one.
So here's where my question comes in...the house that we are renting is one that we could potentially buy if we wanted to, in which case, I think it would be a FSBO. There is also a house that I just saw today - my dream house - that is also FSBO. Our realtor didn't help us find either of these houses and hasn't done any work regarding them for us. Given all of these circumstances, would she be owed a 3% commission if we were to buy either house? We would likely have more wiggle room in the price if we don't involve a realtor, but we also want to be sure we're doing the right thing.
I should add that unless we find something sooner, we will be in this rental for a year, so if we were to buy this house, it will be next summer, so we will be pretty far removed from our realtor having helped us. Thanks so much! 
Re: Would we owe our realtor a commission in this situation?
To me, that's a tough one. If a realtor showed you houses that she wasn't the seller's agent for, then she is your buyer's agent even if you have not signed anything. If you buy the place you are renting in a year, I wouldn't sweat it. But if you buy the "dream house" FSBO, I would use your realtor.
Realtors know all the hoops you need to jump through and have saved us some time and agravation. Good investment in my book.
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Technically, you don't owe her anything. Unless you have signed an agreement or she is the agent who showed you the house you're buying, you have no actual obligation.
When we bought, we had been working with 3 different realtors (one at a time, not all at once). We spent 3 hours with the first one who kept pushing us toward houses priced at THREE TIMES as much as we wanted to spend, saw 2 separate houses with the second (and got several emails from him), but he would not return calls for a week or more, and finally found a bright, responsive agent who found and sold us our home. People move on and use different agents and it's ok.
That being said, if you do decide you want/need an agent to represent you (and it is often a good idea), if 'your' agent has been doing an ok job, then you might as well call her.
Definately involve your realtor! It is worth the money... and she has already done alot of work for you all. I would shoot her an email and get her in the loop with your thoughts and your time constraint as well as the houses you are interested in!
This - the FSBO seller might not be willing to pay your realtor's commission anyway.
This. We had an agent showing us property after property ... in the end we decided to build. We did not involve her in the process of building nor did we ask her to show us land. She is not receiving a commission - but of course she did A LOT of work for us in the months leading up to our final decision.
We sent her $150 bottle of wine with a gift certificate to a nice steakhouse. No commission but that is the risk they take as agents in hopes that they find you THE ONE ... if they don't - they are out. But, they also count on return business, if you should ever need to sell your house then perhaps you think of her.
I can just about guarantee the owner of teh FSBO house will not agree to pay a commission to your realtor. Thats why they are trying to sell on their own...to save the commission!
You do not need a realtor to buy a FSBO either. You only need an attorney to guide you thru the process. I sold my first home myself and my atty. did the leg work for me and he worked directly with the buyers atty.