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Comment by fizixer | Hacker News Reader

Let me guess, that ~$5k is less than 1% of what you would pay in total.

No offense (and sorry for being off-topic) but I never get how people obsess over the under 1 or 2% cost savings while completely ignoring the overvalued principal. Two other examples,

- People go over to buy a $50-$70k car and later boast how "they made" the salesman give them a $500 or $1k discount. (well what about a fully-functioning $20k car, or the same car but 2-3 years old but costing $8-12k?)

- People buying stupid stuff off amazon etc, and worse, travelling to random places, just because they have credit-card cashback and travel rewards, and looking at you funny when you tell them you only have one credit-card and you make sure you don't overspend but never paid attention to how many points you accumulate.

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Bigger picture is that agents conventionally get 6%, which is obnoxious in the Internet age. Sure 1% maybe is not much, but anything that helps to squeeze that industry is great. No?

Yes. Is there even another real estate market in the world where intermediaries capture so much of the gain on sale?

Maybe. Though I haven't gotten over the obnoxious housing prices in the first place, so I guess I'm not seeing what you're seeing.

Just speaking for myself, 5k is a lot of money. So is 1k, so is $500. I can do a lot with that money. Percentages are arbitrary.

I agree however that people buying luxury items and then boasting is kinda dumb. If you're willing pay premiums for luxuries, getting a slight discount on said premiums is hardly a victory. It's like people who buy stuff they don't need and won't use because it's "on sale" and then brag about how they "saved money".

Ideally the real estate agent does help you get max value for your home.

So you make more even with commission. For bad sales people, impatient, or delusional folks, etc . A commission bad real estate agent is a great idea.

However bad real estate agents like house dumpers are satan's spawn.

They work the seller instead of the buyer.

>you only have one credit-card

nothing inherently wrong with that. You won't have maximum access to credit and multiple bank relationships but those consequences may not be relevant to you.

> you make sure you don't overspend

That's great, but not related to the number of credit cards someone has.

> never paid attention to how many points you accumulate.

Some people obsess with points but there's a difference between not accumulating optimally and not accumulating at all. It's incredibly simple to get a 1-2% discount on all money you spend by using credit cards. But, again, that opportunity cost may not be relevant to you.

> No offense (and sorry for being off-topic) but I never get how people obsess over the under 1 or 2% cost savings while completely ignoring the overvalued principal.

Here's my counterpoints:

1. ~5k is enough to pay for two amazing vacations for me and my fiancee. I'd be enthralled to save that amount of money.

2. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you're making the implication that people should instead be searching for cheaper housing. Easier said than done.

You have not considered leverage in the equation.

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