Justin

From the perspective of someone who has dealt with Real Estate agents
a lot, the reason we distrust them is that they are given 5-7% of the
selling price for doing very little work.

To maximize their throughput they must encourage low prices for fast sales (the
small difference in commission is negligible to them) so they are always working
for the buyer regardless of who contracted them.

=|JRM: This was backed up by some research done by Steven Levitt (reported in
his book, Freakonomics). He compared the sale prices of RE agents' clients'
homes with the agents' own homes. They tended to take a little longer and sell
their own homes for more!|=

To counter this several "flat rate" real estate companies have
cropped up in this part of the world. They charge a standard fee to
advertise. They also have a team that will assist the seller with
appointments. There is no conflict because the seller gets what they
want (good advertising) and the real estate company gets paid
regardless of whether the house sells.

Closer to being institutionalized?

=|JRM: Sure, but for this model to be commercial, people must be prepared to
purchase the service in significantly greater numbers! Additionally, the firm
must have a genuine cost advangage. Agents may appear to earn a lot on each
transaction but I think it would be fair to say that an average agent probably
earns a pretty average income. I suspect that we will see an increasing number
of start-ups beginning to nibble-away at the edges of this market (as is
happening currently in the recruitment space).|=