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Comment by zdragnar | Hacker News Reader

In a hot market, selling without an agent is easy. In a normal market, they can help quite a bit.

On the flip side, buying with an agent is handy in a hot market, because they can help you get bids in by having access to sellers realtors and knowing in advance when a home is coming on the market.

That said, my last purchase definitely didn't need the involvement of a realtor at all.

(You're totally right that I misremembered the 10% number, btw).

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Personal story, I sold my home in Austin in July of this year. I was going to sell it myself but instead found a 1% broker. It was listed at $525k and I would have taken $495k. Because I don't negotiate for a living and because $495k is a lot in comparison to what I paid, _anyone_ could have easily talked me down from $525k. But because they called the broker instead of me the property sold for $547k. The broker also encouraged me to offer only 2.5% to the buyer agent instead of the 3% that is typical.

So yes, if you can keep your cool, keep your mouth shut, forget how much you already profited, and have a bit of greed in you, then sell it yourself. Otherwise outsource this job and pay as little as you can for it.

I've sold two houses in normal markets without an agent doing what the above poster mentioned. I talked to a handful of seller agents and none could articulate any value over just doing a flat-fee MLS listing. Some were completely unwilling to come down to 4 or 5% commission and typically the ones who insisted on 6% also insisted on listing the house below market value.

I was more than happy to plop down a couple hundred to list on MLS and pay the buyer agent a 2% commission. We had a pretty boilerplate purchase agreement and then the title company handled the rest.

Its not just in hot markets. That is myth

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