Charles Vlahos

I can see from the above a lot of agents have a lot of free time on their hands. Change for the sake of change? - 3 bananas for the LA and 3 bananas for the SA is still 6 bananas. If you convince you client you need 6 bananas to sell their property - they will pay it. If competitiors are around offering less bananas and you client thinks that will get the job done your competitor will get the listing and you won't. Simple - we don't have to change the system to cover this simple principle. Stop wasting time on trying to change something that isn't broke - instead spend time to sell what you got (or get something to sell).

I wouldn't put the way Realtors are doing business now out to pasture. If you want to sell a house - many of the things Realtors do - a homeowner wouldn't want to or couldn't. Often times the best customer for a Listing Agent is the homeowner who sold their home without a Realtor. They don't want to go through all that work again. A person selling their house (in a normal market) doesn't have a clue even how to start the process let alone deal with the issues they can't even imagine that might come up. A person buying a house finds a bunch of houses on the Web - Owner's don't want to talk to them directly let alone begin the buying process with them (are they qualified - do they know what they really want etc.) You found the house of your dreams (or did you) now what do you do? No...the current model will be around for quite sometime - even after most of us are gone. Perhaps large Brand companies will disappear in favor of smaller firms - or even 1 person shops - but I can't see things changing in the basic model for quite sometime - if ever. By the way - if everyone out there keeps lowering their fees or offering reduced fees for the same work all that might happen is more individuals will leave the business until those that are left begin raising the fees and earning a decent living. Then the circle will be complete and start all over again. All the information out there is good - but maybe there is too much information for Sellers and Buyers to comprehend. They need someone (a Realtor) to make sense and organize it. Do you expect your lawyer to make that appointment, meet with the inspector, negotiate selling prices etc. Perhaps someone else who you are paying a couple hundred dollars will do it for you and care about the outcome? Don't worry - the basic model will be around a long time - just worry about having enough realtors around when the market improves to help handle the increased business. The Web is here to stay - I know that. Realtors arn't the keepers of all the info anymore - but they are needed when a Seller or Buyer is ready to actually sell or buy.