Why not charge less?

[Sam Dogen]

As a real estate investor, one of the main reasons why I've been reluctant to sell is the 5% selling commission fee. When the internet has compressed commissions everywhere, it's amazing people are still willing to pay 5%.

Given volume is down, why doesn't the real estate industry just lower their commission costs to increase volume? This way, more people will get paid.

[Matthew Spyker]

It would create an environment that cheapens your product. You may be able to take a cut on a deal that has very little time invested, but I've seen agents help people over weeks and months, sometimes leading to never closing a deal. That's time for daycare, health, vehicle and liability insurance, gas, food, etc. If you get into the business of seeking cuts, you will get lower quality clients and many issues. You pay for what you get in every sense. It's like pest companies trying to capitalize on the crawl.space enclosure market, research it and you'll discover a wealth of differences.