Absolutely not! In 98% of deals the listing brokerage pays for the commission. Only on rare occasions will there be homes of interest that do not offer to pay commission. An example would be a For Sale by owner. In this case I would ask for your permission to contact the owner and request that they co-operate in paying the 2.5%. If the owner is unwilling to pay commission and the price is right, you may want to proceed anyway.

Sellers who do not use a realtor are looking for the buyer to pay market price so they can pocket the commission themselves. The buyers who buy these homes are looking to pay less because the seller is not paying commission. Not a very good situation for either!