I’ve not bought a house lately, but I noticed that ziprealty has a “make offer” button. I like ziprealty more than the rest because, it’s not a referral service. You can actually buy and sell with ziprealty.
sdrealtor has a point that certain transactions are complicated. However, the vast majority of transactions are straight forward.
I think that we’ll see a dual system evolve where people who need hand holding can go to a full service broker whereas others will use discount brokers. Let the customer choose.
I think that RE brokering will evolve like the travel or insurance industries but at a slower pace. Remember, those agents used to charge 10% of everything.
The real estate lobby is very strong and they’ll try to slow the evolution process as much as possible. In the end, politicians will have to step-up and write new regulations to streamline the process.
Less friction in our economy will mean that resources can be freed-up for more inovative uses. That’s how, as a society, we can increase our standard of living.
