I think the future of real estate will be people listing and finding homes without realtors, but then hiring a lawyer, escrow company or out of work realtor to do the closing process for a flat or hourly fee.

Yes, realtors still hold a monopoly on the MLS, which is still the best place to list homes or get detailed info on for-sale homes. But every year more and more useful information is available for free at other website, and this tread will inevitably continue. The “value” of the MLS will continue to fall.

The only remaining value of a realtor is expertise in managing the paperwork and hassle of the buying and selling process. The process is complex enough that expertise is required, and I don’t want to waste the time educating myself on a process I will engage in once every 10 years or so.

But why is paperwork expertise worth 3%? A lawyer would happily do it $200 an hour, probably about $4,000 total. And we think lawyers are overpaid?

Future of real estate: No more full service realtors. Instead “sale consultants” who charge a flat fee to get your home ready to sell and list. Hourly-paid “agents” who take you on home tours with their lock-box key or who babysit your open house. Then the paperwork expert who manages the actual transaction. All for less than $10,000 per transaction total.