Realtors are outdated middlemen extracting wealth from everyone else.
They have successfully lobbied to put laws and regulations in place that keep them in the middle of transactions, extracting tens of thousands of dollars every time a house changes ownership.
They also run massive campaigns to convince people of their value. Prepare for astroturfing defense of realtors in this thread of people claiming their realtor "saved them money" by giving some trivial guidance, despite the fact that for every one instance of that in real life, there are 100 people who got told whatever they needed to hear to close the sale.
I have been wondering lately why the focus is on automating things like cab drivers, food service, even programmers...but the middlemen like this are still running strong.
Back in the mid 2000s I watched my friend use flexmls exclusively and just told the realtor what to call on. Had all the listings, all the info, basically the majority of a realtor's job.
Seems like the majority of the work to replace them was done. It is just behind a login.
Now we are left with sites that "seem" to do nothing more but creep prices up. When it benefits the real estate investor they say "well this site says..." but when it doesn't they say "Well...you can't go just on a website".
The real estate market is driven by delusion right now. The prices are unrealistic. Jobs that can afford to purchase (or even rent) are scarce. The remote work sector is dying off quickly.
At some point we just need to pay the middle men to do nothing...there is no reason to me that only 6/32 "careers" in my area can afford to purchase a home.
Rent requires making $60k but what "renters" make in the area is closer to $35k (most landlords require 3x rent as income, some have come down to 2.5x).
Housing insecurity is going through the roof and it seems that the majority don't care. Homeless people are just viewed as sick somehow and an inconvenience.
I guess not everyone makes the cut.
> Now we are left with sites that "seem" to do nothing more but creep prices up. When it benefits the real estate investor they say "well this site says..." but when it doesn't they say "Well...you can't go just on a website".
The value and convenience factor is not none, but the whole industry is predicated on this.
Watch a renovation show on HGTV and you will hear people saying, explicitly, "So want to hear the good news? You spent $40K on that renovation, that added $100K to your home value."
They have successfully lobbied to put laws and regulations in place that keep them in the middle of transactions, extracting tens of thousands of dollars every time a house changes ownership.
They also run massive campaigns to convince people of their value. Prepare for astroturfing defense of realtors in this thread of people claiming their realtor "saved them money" by giving some trivial guidance, despite the fact that for every one instance of that in real life, there are 100 people who got told whatever they needed to hear to close the sale.