I appreciate your posts for the balanced view and professional knowledge they help to bring to this page.
But when you say, “If there were no Realtors and no Multiple Listing Service which is not a public utility but rather a system paid for and supported by Realtors homes would be very difficult to sell at any price,” this seems to me to be a bit of an outdated view. Prior to the internet, it may have had more validity. But I don’t see any reason why there couldn’t be a website (or several) that contain all the listings of houses for sale. Such a website could easily be run without charging each seller more than a hundred bucks or so. There could be a complete listing of sold properties available for making comparisons. There’d be kinks to work out, for sure, but an efficient system could no doubt be established. Then, when buyer and seller agreed on a price, you could hire real estate professionals to check the title, check all the other things that have to be checked, cross the i’s dot the t’s, finish the paperwork, etc. You could pay them $60/hr just like you pay an engineer. Maybe a little more to cover their insurance. You’d end up paying them maybe a couple thousand. Which seems more reasonable and fair than paying them enough to send their kid to college just because the real estate racket forces you to do so.
When I say real estate racket, what I’m talking about is the fact that if you don’t offer 2 1/2 percent to the buyer’s agent, most buyer’s agents won’t show their clients your home. They, like so many commission-based sales people, frequently place the size of their commission ahead of their customer’s wants and needs.
It seems to me to only be a matter of time before a critical mass of home buyers and sellers understand what a fleecing is taking place, the MLS is rendered worthless, and you don’t have people making a full-time income for selling 3 or 4 houses in a year.
I’m sure you’ll disagree with a lot of the above, and I’m interested to hear your viewpoint.
