drboom-
I completely agree with you. I have to say that the attitude taken by one of the realtors in that other thread was very high handed – for example, his/her (apparently) unilateral decision to refuse to deal with unrepresented buyers. I didn’t see any suggestion that he checked with his clients before turning potential buyers away. . .
Further, I’m not sure if you’ve read the original Freakonomics book (authors are an award winning econ prof from Univ. of Chicago and a reporter for the NYT), but it includes a fascinating large scale statistical study of prices received by sellers that sold through agents versus those who went the FSBO route. Almost no difference in ultimate sale price (but the sellers obviously made the 2-3% or so that would otherwise have gone to the agent). Interestingly, the article also pointed out that agents selling their own homes left those homes on the market longer without changing the price (as compared to sellers represented by agents), waited longer to accept an offer and ultimately sold for approx. 3% more than the statistics suggested that similar houses were selling for. Because they got the full 3%, the authors suggested, it was worth the extra effort. Had they only been receiving a commission on that 3%, the extra effort wouldn’t have been economically justified.
Finally, we sold our home in North County San Diego three years ago (2007). We insisted on setting the price $125,000 higher than the agent (very well known in the area) recommended. We received three offers within two weeks and ultimately sold for $10,000 less than asking price ($115,000 more than the agent had recommended). Yes, maybe it was a fluke, but I think people should have more respect for their own instincts. And, as I mentioned in that other thread, a good real estate attorney should be able to give you even more value than an agent.