Home buying / realtor questions (long)

[WiltOnTilt]

Hey guys, I hope this is the right forum.

For those of you who are familiar with real estate and realtors and home buying...

Background: My fiance and I are 25 years old and we're looking at purchasing our first home. We've been looking at mostly newly built homes that haven't yet sold in around 250k range (we live in the midwest). We're able to put 80k in as a down payment.

Currently we have a realtor who (in my estimation) is worthless. All of the houses she has shown to us have sucked, and the houses we've liked have been found by my fiancee through online home searches. We've been told that it's important to have a "buyer's agent" so there's someone in your corner and they split 6% of the house with the seller's agent, if it's listed. Also the buyer's agent will draft up the legal offer, which is a "benefit" because she "knows all the legal language for contingencies". She wanted us to sign a contract with her so she has rights to her 3% commission on any house we buy (even if we find it ourselves). I refused.

Questions:
- How important is it to have a buyer's agent? Are the reasons above valid?

- When asked by a seller's agent if I have a buyer's agent, does it work to say "If you'll give up 1/2 of your 6% commission to me, then I have no buyer's agent, otherwise I do have a buyer's agent" ?

- How hard is it to draft up your own legal offer with contingencies? Is there a place online that has offer templates where I can fill in the details?

- How much should I expect to pay a lawyer to draft up an offer for me if I cannot do it myself?

- I keep hearing "this is such a great time to buy" because builders have a huge inventory just sitting there. We really haven't seen this in the Kansas City area. What's the best way to find these mystery houses that are "such a great deal"?

Thanks for any and all replies,

KoW