[notjesse]

6% has been the norm in the US for a long time. It is absurdly high and is why opportunities like iBuying exist.

In the UK, there is no wiggle room for such ventures, but as the transactional costs in the US is steep, the market was ripe for disruption. You can usually expect your total transaction costs to be 8-10%, so there is a lot of margin in there for Zillow/Opendoor to operate as the only intermediary (buyer & seller agent, lender, stager, etc).

[samspenc]

Can confirm that 6% is the norm and average cut the agents take in the US. Typically 3% for seller's agent and 3% for buyer's agent. The entire commission is paid by the seller so the buyer never sees this, though technically those fees are baked into the final price they pay for the house. RedFin and others are trying to disrupt this model but made very little inroads so far.