what choice do they have, though?
It's very hard for potential buyers to become aware of the house you have for sale without it being in the MLS system
Realtors control access to the MLS system.
See where I'm going with this?
https://www.nar.realtor/nar-doj-settlement/multiple-listing-...
If you don’t want to pay the real estate agent organizations, you can put your real estate listing on Craigslist, buy online ads, stick a sign on your yard, go door to door to various real estate agent offices, etc.
Our real estate agent worked pretty hard for us buying and selling and we were glad to have him. When we found our new house, it was on Zillow for only 8 minutes and he got us in first during a peak market. It was his tip that "sellers will often stick with the first buyer who offers selling price instead of waiting for better offers" that allowed us to beat everyone else, even though our sellers had actually gotten a higher offer because it made us give them an offer immediately after our first tour. This was after we had basically lost out on three other sales for houses that we wanted (not his fault - we weren't first or highest on those).
The next two sentences are simply false.
But if a group of people want to organize and maintain that info in a certain way, and have their notes, and get paid for doing that, is that not their right?
Did they create/curate the info? If so, then yes, just like anyone else is able to use IP laws.
> They use that IP law to grant themselves information asymmetry to gain 6% commissions whereas many countries have commissions half that.
No, they use supply and demand for their services to collect 6% commission. And it’s very negotiable, also showing that the amount a real estate agent charges is due to supply and demand.
I’m only familiar with the way real estate agents work in the US, so I can’t comment on how it works in other countries. But all I can say is, in my experience, the sales history data is all available on the government website, and otherwise, you’re paying for the marketing and whatnot. If you don’t like the price, then negotiate lower, and if that fails, don’t pay it and do the work yourself.
Actually, no. There is extensive evidence that real estate commissions are not tied to supply & demand due to collusion in the marketplace.
If you and I have the same information as the agents, then their use goes down a lot.
This is how collusion in the real-estate market functions.
If you're a seller, you might very well get fewer agents bringing their clients to you. You're free to advertise that you will pay a commission to entice agents though. And the buyer is also free to side step the real estate agent or tell their agent they will make up for commissions from non agent represented sellers.
It's 2021, using Redfin/Zillow/Trulia/Craigslist/Realtor.com is trivial.
I foresee less and less opportunity for collusion as information becomes more and more accessible to everyone.