[quote=Blogstar]When house prices went berserk.[/quote]
Redfin and the rest of the internet also cut into Realtor’s margins. It’s pretty easy for buyers and sellers to do their own market research these days in a way that you just couldn’t do 10-15 years ago. And For Sale By Owner is a lot easier too. Why pay 6% as a seller if you can knock 1.5% off the price of the house and pay the buyer’s agent 2.5% to do all the paperwork for you?
I have to say, the one area I was seriously unimpressed by our buying agent was price negotiations… it was left almost 100% up to us how to make our offers and counter offers. Agents just have too much incentive to want the deal to settle rather than fighting hard for a $5k price cut.
