>so why hire someone for 5-7% of the purchase price
What's a few hundred basis points of exaggeration when trying to make a point, right?
>who doesn't have a college degree
Anecdote time: I know well five brokers, all who have degrees, one with an advanced degree.
>and has been in the industry for 3 years or less.
Now here, you have described Redfin agents almost perfectly. Huge turnover, low compensation, bad broker work and no long term interest in a career that facilitates a race to the bottom.
> Furthermore, notice the incentives if you're a buyer literally everyone in the transaction from real estate agent to mortgage broker wants the price to be as high as possible.
Yes some buyers can avoid involving intermediaries, and that's where Redfin and its ilk can work well. But it is a fact that without negotiation skill and deep experience in the product, all that upward price pressure goes unanswered. Markets aren't magic, they are collections of people, and agents who earn their keep are persons skilled at high touch, high risk transactions between people.
> We're going to fix this.
Redfin's had 12 years and what's more, its flat-rate business model predates the web. Would you like a few more decades?