I build ground up and flip a handful of properties each year which I list myself in AZ. If someone comes to me without a buyers agent to purchase my property, I'm going to get everything out of them that I can. I feel no need to get them a good deal as they seek self representation.
But representing my buyers, I treat them and their money as sacred. I protect them as much as I possibly can. And for my clients sake, I take advantage of sellers that hire a bad agent, sometimes to the extent of 10% of the price or more.
And for my sellers that I represent, if a buyer comes to me without an agent, I'm going to work over the buyer as much as I can. In my experience, the people that try to buy without a realtor are usually a major pain to deal with and feel entitled to complain at any point during the transaction. Said buyer is never going to give me a referral or a thank you, so I'm going to get $10,000 or more out of them so that my seller loves me and sends their friends my way.
I can't understand it either, I buy in other parts of the country and use an agent to buy and sell as well. I refer my family in other areas to good quality agents. I negotiate a lower fee but why wouldn't I want someone who knows the area to help???
Long story short, we will see more people not using buyers agents and they may work out once in a while but in the grand scheme, they'll get what they pay for. But I'd rather pay 2.5% of my own money to a buyers agent rather than deal with an entitled buyer on my own property.
More disclosure is a good thing, less agents is a good thing but overall, everybody needs someone in their corner.
The same people who try FSBO and screw buyers agents will do the same thing now, bad agents will likely get weeded out, and average decent people will appreciate having someone help them. And good agents will follow the correct path to make sure that they're providing proper value to their clients and get paid in a way that doesn't adversely affect their clients.
