I'm about to make a big move, and it is absurd that the only value the agents I'm talking to are (that a user on Reddit can't provide by telling me about the area) providing is the MLS they have access to.
The 6% commission, you would think, would be a price subject to market forces, but due to collusion among realtors, its locked in. Why anti-trust isn't investigating? Lobbying, that's why.
A good agent really shines when you get into "unusual" situations, by providing you with good advice when the way is not clear. If you buy and sell houses a few times you will see some of these situations.
When I began talking pricing on the house, the FIRST thing out of the realtors mouth was “Since you aren’t using an agent we can knock $x off the price of the house” that was before and negotiating had started, and before I made any offer.
And to even sweeten the deal more, the selling realtor was the owner of the house I ended up buying, so there was no commission for the seller to add into the price really. Needless to say, after negotiating we got the house much cheaper than equivalent houses were selling for.