Is a buyer's agent really necessary and worth to have?

Not necessary to have. I actually bought my house without going through an agent. I was upfront with the seller and told him that if he would like to seal the deal, he might have to help me with the process which he gladly did.

"My husband also thinks it's a better deal since the seller's agent won't have to share his commission thus will help us negotiate with the seller." Not true, regardless if you have a buyer's agent or not, the seller agent still gets a fixed % (agreed beforehand with the seller) based on the final negotiated price.

I bought a resale HDB 3 years ago and had a buyer's agent, ended up paying almost $10k commission (1% of 900k plus GST). Personally I think buyer's agent add value in the 3 points below.

1. Arrange viewing time. The agent will usually arrange timing with the respective seller agents so you can have back-to-back viewings within a few hours. If you have the time, you can do this on your own.

2. Paperwork. Some paperwork can be confusing, and require quite a lot of supporting documents. Again, if you have the time, you can do this on your own. There are many guides out there on how to fill in the paperwork.

3. (most important) Negotiation. I think this is where agents play the most important role. Firstly, they know the market price well, based on the floor level, facing etc. An experienced agent can probably tell if the sellers are desperate to sell (do they need to sell within 6 months because they already bought a condo to avoid ABSD?) and can press the price lower. Most importantly, the buyer's agent and seller's agent can take things offline - sometimes the seller's agent may disclose the lowest price the seller is willing to let go of the flat to the buyer's agent, to hope to close the deal faster. I do not believe the seller's agent will disclose this to you (I might be wrong). I leave it to you to judge if the agent's negotiation skill can help you save more than 1% (to at least offset the agent commission)