The lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are aiming at Realtors 6%

[Bill Cippola]

Wonder if this will gain traction and change the agent landscape?

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/big-name-lawsuit...

[Steve Vaughan]

Originally posted by @Oscar Pinto:

It is unfortunate realtors are compared to big tobacco. And why shouldn't agents discuss buyer's commission with their buyers? And how many times have lawyers, disruptors, technology, etc. gone after agent's commissions? The internet has been around for 20 years and wasn't that supposed to be it for brokers? What happened? Agents adapted, business models were altered AND commissions remained. 

Next disruptor is AI, let's see what happens. 

 It's not the commissions themselves, it's the listing agreement requiring  the seller to compensate the counter-parties representation.  Why can't it be 1/2?   I agree to compensate my LA 3% to market this property. Fair enough.

The problem is the listing agreement requiring the seller pay for the agent of the buyer. To pay for the buyer to be educated by said agent. To compensate someone specifically designed to negotiate against them.  What other industry operates this way?  

I sell FSBO, a la carte. I sell at my net price that I would receive if I listed it. This gets a lot of interest, of course. If the buyer has an agent or wants closing cost help, they up the price, essentially paying for their own concessions and representation. I have had extremely good results and feedback with this model.

Stand up for yourself is the point.  Just because the status quo is the way it's always been done or just because the buyers generally can't afford to pay their representation out of pocket does not make it right to force sellers to pay.