Chipping Away at Realtors Six Percent

People always approach this problem from the seller's side, presumably because the seller is more aware of how much money goes to the agent. But the real issue is that people use an agent to buy their home, and agents won't show private sales. The MLS only matters because realtors exclusively show homes in the MLS. If private sellers had access to the MLS, realtors would probably find another way to avoid showing those homes and preserve their monopoly.

To attack the realtors, you need to do two things. First, sellers have to be willing to share the savings with unagented buyers. There's no incentive for buyers to tackle the process alone if they're stuck paying market price. Second, there needs to be a fixed price service for home buyers. There are plenty of fixed price agencies for sellers, but nothing for buyers.

Whenever I read about bypassing real estate agents, I wish there were some good statistics instead of just anecdotes. You might think you saved money by doing it yourself, but could an agent have gotten you a better deal?

For an anecdote opposing the article, our neighbor sold her house during the boom and reluctantly used an agent. There was a bidding war on the house and it sold for 15% more than her asking price. I doubt that would have happened without the agent.

(from 2007)