[jasode]

>why should the process of selling a house require "expertise"?

At a fundamental level, one could say sellers don't require outside expertise to sell a home. Real estate agents are optional. There is a concept called "for sale by owner" which is a strategy some homeowners use. They can list the house on their own (not on MLS though), vet potential buyers, coordinate the showing of the home (appointments and/or open houses), etc. They can also get a real-estate lawyer to draw up contract papers, handle earnest money, etc.

However, most sellers do not want to mess with all the above. They literally do not have the "expertise" to do it all themselves. (Yes, the homeowners can sell a car on Craigslist but selling a home is a step change in complexity.) Hence, you end up with middlemen like real estate agents.

Some people think real-estate agents only exist because they have a monopoly on the MLS computer listings. That's not true. Even if somebody disrupted MLS database with Zillow listings, real estate agents would still exist. Selling a house is a complicated enough affair that intermediaries who specialize in it would always be a natural emergent phenomenon. The real economic question is whether they can keep charging 6% commissions as the internet evolves.

[just4themoney]

Most of the time you can list a FSBO house on the MLS for a small fee. Our MLS has plenty of the FSBO houses listed.

https://fsbo.com/flat-fee-mls

The thing is, a lot of time FSBO houses tend to be overpriced, which is very unfortunate.

[jrs235]

To be listed on an MLS you still need to offer a co-broke fee to any agent procuring a buyer.

[GFischer]

The real economic question is whether they can keep charging 6% commissions as the internet evolves

That's the point. In pre-internet ages, there was a huge information imbalance that kind of validated that 6% (also, there wasn't such a ridiculous housing bubble).

Someone mentioned a real estate agent making 1250 dollars/hour. I would be willing to jump whatever hoops were needed to make that kind of money if I were in the U.S.

[jasode]

>That's the point.

Well, the percentage is only part of the point. Some commenters in this thread are truly perplexed why the agents even _exist_.

They exist because sellers want them to exist. I'm saying it's naive to think that a new revolutionary website with a slick UI/UX would make agents obsolete. Agents may make less money (e.g. forces of free market lowers their median income from $45k to $20k) but the agents won't go away. If you have a population of people that don't want to do something (hassle work of selling) and a segment of population willing to specialize in relieving that hassle, then boom, you inevitably end up with agents. A new website or smartphone app doesn't remove the desires for that business relationship.

>Someone mentioned a real estate agent making 1250 dollars/hour.

Most agents don't make much money[1]. (Median is ~$45k.) There are a handful of superstar agents selling multi-million dollar mansions but most agents are selling more modest properties.

[1] https://www.google.com/search?q=average+real+estate+agent+in...