I don’t think we need RE agents, this is coming from a former agent. Mostly, agents show homes, take listings, and work on their business, the legal and clerical work that you may think they help with is minimal. They basically fill out the purchase contract, the form is pretty straight forward, there are few things that change between the average contract, besides the terms of the deal. Usually they have a transaction coordinator that does most of the work for them anyways. Some agents I worked with could barely fill out the purchase agreement.
Considering the current information age, and the availability of INSTANT access to listings, and inventory, I do think it is possible for the average transaction to exclude the RE agent, or at least RE agents will have a more minor role, and hopefully smaller commission. I would have no problems paying escrow a bit more to help with the clerical and legal side of things.
Remember that the people who protect you when buying/selling a home are: termite inspectors, title companies, home inspectors, escrow, appraisers (supposedly), etc. Chances are that you will use these same services, anyways, with or without a RE agent.
BTW, no offense to the RE agents on this board. We could do with out you, but the real scum is the lender or loan officer. If I could eliminate either one first, I would pick the lowly lenders. We could easily do with out them.
