10 years ago, if you want to buy a house you would do these:
1. call a brokerage firm and they assign you a realtor or a buyer’s agent
2. you go home and wait until your agent call you.
3. Your agent show you the house that he/she think that might suit you.
4. repeat 2-3 until you think the house is good.
5. then your agent will tell you the market information and suggest the offering price.
For average joe, that is pretty much it. You won’t get to see the whole MLS in real time and wouldn’t know the acutal market condition. you have no idea (or very vague) how much a square foot cost for a 2000 square foot house in Carmel Valley, or Mira Mesa, before your agent told you so. And you won’t know there are 30 houses that may meet your criterias if you agent told you that we should come to see just 3 houses this month.
There is a lot of hand holding back then, the 6% commission is well earned (still pretty much mandatory and not priced for performance) by the profession.
Today, all you (still an average joe) need is someone to open the doors and to present the offer.
You have real time access to MLS and you can see the pictures of the houses before hand. You also know there are hundereds of houses availabe on the market and the exact location. Today’s I am not going to submit my best and highest offer before I see all 30 houses that meet my criterias.
The competition is more intense and the bar has been raisen. Individual (average) realtor have to lower their fees or provide more service than just opening doors and present offers.
