Personally now that I do my own investments and close deals for commercial with my clients directly I have no use for agents.

This goes for agents, brokers, attorneys, wholesalers, etc. 

Houses are scarcer than hen's teeth, and there's not much to go around so agents are having a rough time of it.I ran some quick math numbers in my area yesterday and making a whole lot of assumptions (for example, only 40% of all local agents were party to a sale, everything that was available gets sold, etc) the math didn't seem to pencil out very well for agents right now.

OPOne way you can compete with large complexes is to offer apts for age 50 and up only.Large complexes are usually very noisy with children and loud music. 

Mostly they are places looking for agents or law firms looking for paralegals.

There are threads here that explain this, might do some searching and catch up with the basics.You really need to get a real estate book for agents, that will take you through the conventional side of real estate basics most here skip. 70% of the questions asked on BP are answered from a basic knowledge of RE.

I would treat it like you do the investment side on the marketing, but I don't know the #s on the response rate for agents, but we get some listings here and there just from working the investment marketing, as if they don't take our offer, we can offer a plan B to list their house.  

I'm not sure if it is regional or not, but having your license allows you to go look at properties on your time... not waiting for agent to set it up, etc...

E&O insurance for agents doesn't cover SS negotiating.

If you look through my post history you'll find I have no love lost for agents.