I've wondered why we needed so many real estate agents. The last time I used one was 1995 and I had a pleasant experience. A few years ago, before the black death, we started looking at buying and selling. Contacted a guy a relative knew. I was floored by the fact that this guy was just promoting everything in the area where we were looking. While we were looking at one place he even told me there is no perfect house and this one would be gone in a few days. Total dick head that reminded me of a car saleman. So now I just look at Zillow for listings and might drop in on an open house if I see something that catches my eye. Otherwise I don't need the endless harassment of texts and emails from an idiot.
And the commisions are just stupid. Our house is valued at around 650K, so a 6% commision would be 39K. How much actual work is done for 39K even if that gets spit 3 ways between two agents and a broker. I got this feeling that many people became agents because they didn't want to invest the time and money for a job that paid a lot less. That was during the good times however.
So it looks like the gig is up. Fewer realtors because they just aren't needed anymore. If I use one I'll be sure to negotiate the fee with a contract. And no, I'm not paying a sellers agent or their closing costs. I'm just not that hard up.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/real-...090000114.html