[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by JohnnyP

Real estate commissions of 6% may have been justified before the internet, and computerized forms, but not anymore.
- Once a house is listed on the MLS or VLS, buyers are able to search and find candidate homes without any real estate agent assistance.
- Sellers can stage their own homes, following guidelines on the Internet.
- And a lot of the paperwork is now the responsibility of the seller/buyer to complete, after an agent emails access to online forms.

I sold my home, in MD, after interviewing 5 agents and selecting a very successful RE/MAX agent who seemed the most capable and only charged a 1% commission.
- My wife and I had already staged our house, and I took a great set of ~70 photos.
- I hired the agent at 2pm, signed an agent agreement at 4pm, and the home was listed on the MLS by 7pm.
- The first open house was 4 days later and yielded 2 competing offers. The sales contract was in place 2 days later, $26K over the asking price of $780,000 ($806K sale price).

The brokerage fees were:
- Listing agent commission 1% $8,060
- Selling agent commission 2.5% $20,150
- Total commission 3.5% $28,210
- A savings of $20,150 (42%) over the traditional 6% commission of $48,360.

If enough sellers push back on the traditional 6% commission, and select discount brokers, then the market will eventually respond with lower commission rates.

By your savings calculation, you could have saved an additional $28,210 by selling it yourself and paying no commission. So, you are assigning zero value to the agents involved in the sale. That is not how real estate sales work. Good, experienced agents sell houses for more money than bad agents or no agent.