Why would any buyer go through a real estate agent?

[OWC Jamie]

thermarest wrote:
[quote=billb]
[quote=3d]

If i was a seller i would love to bypass that agent and save $12,000 (3%) on a $400,000
home.

Am i missing something?


Without the agent, do you think you'd get $400,000 ?
In too many cases , the answer is no

This was the exact topic of one of the chapters in the Freakonomics book. They showed quite convincingly that the agent does not act in the seller's best interest. It is far more advantageous for the agent for the selling price to be lower and sell the property more quickly.

So, I suppose from this perspective that the agent is good for the buyer.

Here's a snippit and link to some discussion of the topic:

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/20...revisited/

"Do brokers add sufficient value to justify those commissions? We address this question using a unique data set pertaining to sales of faculty and staff homes on the Stanford University campus. We find no evidence that the use of a broker leads to higher average selling prices, or that it significantly alters average initial asking prices"

some find the colonic cleanser stories believable, too.


lots of 'data sets' there, too.
and not limited to staff homes on a campus