The 6% commission structure covers a lot of services. Scouting out properties for purchase or listing a property for sale are only a couple of them. While it’s true to some extent that the use of online services can in some fashion replace this portion of what a full service brokerage does, they can’t come close to replacing all the services that 6% covers. I think there will continue to be a place for full service brokerage for a long time.

That’s why in a real estate market where the average home is still selling for less than $200,000 the 6% commission structure makes a lot of sense. There are a lot of those areas in the nation yet. In a market where the average homes are selling at higher prices, that commission structure starts to look out of place.

Why should a Bressi Ranch tract home generate $60,000 in realty commissions if the same home in Riverside County would only $30,000 for the same service? Same thing goes for mortgage brokerage, too. It takes just as much time and effort to build a loan package in a $200k market as in a $1,000,000 market, why are the commissions not rated on a sliding scale?