[jaclaz]

>There was a Freakanomics podcast episode or book section (I don't remember) where they asserted that the data showed realtors left their own homes on the market longer, ultimately yielding a higher sale price, when compared to homes they were selling for their clients.

It was a bit more subtle than that.

Given a fixed percentage (let's take the 6%), if the agent sells today the house (valued 100,000-120,000 US$) he/she gets US$ 6,000 today.

If the 100,000 offer is refused the house stays on the market for - say - 3 months more, and eventually is sold at 110,000 US$) the agents gets only US$ 600 more (and three months later), but has to arrange many more visits, so the formula is incentivating "quick sales" and the agent has all the interest to counsel the seller to accept a "low offer".

The proposal by the freakanomics authors was to increase the percentage due to the agent on the sums exceeding the "base value" of the property, so that the convenience would be shifted to "sell the house at the highest reasonable price in a reasonable time".