I don’t understand why everyone is required to hate realtors. This article is a good example, but the tendency is universal. Realtors settled a stupid lawsuit that accused them of price-fixing because they charge a commission on sales. Everyone is acting like the 6% commission is the sole problem with the housing market.
Houses cost THREE TIMES what they should, not 6% more than they should. The graphs are crystal clear. For a long time before 2008, houses had a fairly constant value relative to income. The value dropped in 2008 under control of the hedge fund monsters, then the hedge fund monsters bought up most of the houses at the cheap price they had forced. After cornering the market they multiplied prices by 3.
You want to talk about price-fixing? Go after Blackrock. Of course that’s physically impossible because Larry Fink also owns all the ways you could possibly go after him.
It’s fashionable to declare that realtors do nothing for their money. Nonsense. They handle negotiations, do a certain amount of quality control, and above all handle the legalistic crap that most people don’t know how to do. That’s worth 6%.
Some kinds of salesmen are overpaid, but not realtors.
Polistra's Mill 