On the buying side, that's a non-starter for such adjustment because of the prevailing system in place where a seller is expected to present that buyers broker payment and reducing such DOES absolutely result in agents "ghosting" that listing. Not supposed to but it does. So change has to start at listing side.
What would you think to a listing agreement that stated a flat rate, say $1,750, which covers all items associated with building that listing. The initial CMA, property photos, videos, and creating the listing. Now keep in mind this is just creating the listing colterol, not the actual activities of such. And photo's videos can be a pretty penny themselves, for good pro ones that is. And maybe there would be tiers, a good - better - best kind of thing.
Next for the actual listing, a 1% selling brokers commission WITH a per hr consulting rate fee, just like attorneys do it, with a stated retainer amount as billing comes from that retainer/escrow.
You do want a listing agent to have a "dog in the fight" and, a "more" property will denote "more" marketing/advertising activities, hence that 1% is reflective of the both. But this structure helps to keep it to a significant minimum vs prevailing standard today, and with the per hr billing rate known and structure for agent time, that defends on those activities.
The only alternative to this, would arguably end up costing a lot more because it would mean breaking down every function into a billable and than tiered options on each and all of this add's a whole ton more administrative and accounting measures just to track and manage, thus adding more admin impact and there in, more cost. For example an advertising and marketing budget, to track every spend on that and not to mention having to educate every client on what is and is not appropriate because as it stands today, people are clueless what we spend on such. My organization burns thousands weekly on such and I am 100% certain our clients take it for granted.
And than I'd have to point out every Listing Transaction actually has 4 sales made to get 1 closing. FIRST we have to sell a buyer on the desire of the property via the marketing colterol. We gotta get them interested enough to come out, but ideally come out with urgency, because that's how you drive multiples, and that's the goal in EVERY listing. SECOND is the obvious sell, getting a buyer to make an offer, selling them on the property but with that THIRD selling the buyers agent on the purchase also. Yeah, how many overlook that one?! If person(s) love the home and want to make an offer it can get killed real fast by a buyers agent poo-poo'ing it, you ALSO gotta sell that buyers agent on it AND if you can sell that buyers agent on it they often sell there buyer son it also and all the more. And FOURTH but MOST IMPORTANT is you gotta sell that appraiser on the value of it. Yeah, again, near to none talk about or focus on this but as someone of a bit of fame in getting "above market" sale prices, this is a major component of my "how". It's actually the bank who's buying it, facilitated by the desire of the "buyers", so this is the important sale, the appraiser. And it has to be done very intelligently because there is no direct selling allowed. It's all about correctly listing, having all the right details, knowing potential appraisal issues before they happen and solving them before they happen.
This process can consist of a lot of agent interaction and hours outside of direct consulting with clients. I am not sure how one addresses this via a per hr billable. In my experience the sale after the sale is the heavy lift, where the hours really come into it, seeing things through inspection, re-negotiations, appraisal and closing process. The most hours I have ever lost on transactions is in this "time-suck" not on the actual listing side most see. It's the invisible majority of time and importance.
