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Comment by lotsofpulp | Hacker News Reader

It’s very easy to sell or purchase a home without an agent. You can contact the owner, and get all the paperwork done with a lawyer who deals in real estate transactions. There are usually signs that say “For Sale By Owner”.

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It's very hard to find a home you want to purchase without access to the MLS system

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?

No, I don’t see where you’re going with this. Sounds like a group of people created a product that helps facilitate real estate transactions, and they want to get paid for it:

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.

They're alluding to a cartel or mafia.

Zillow lists homes for sale by owner. Last time we bought a house, we almost exclusively used Zillow to search for them because all the Realtor-branded MLS access systems sucked. In the end, the house we bought was found on Zillow.

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).

Redfin and others give free access to the MLS system.

The next two sentences are simply false.

Redfin will let me list my house on the MLS without a fee?

I think parent comment meant you can view MLS listings for free (not understanding that the question was about having to pay to get listed on MLS). Redfin does charge lower listing fees than average though.

That's news to me. My last two real estate agents didn't send me a single house to consider. They haven't helped me determine a reasonable offer. I've been looking for 9 months and have only been to 3 properties. Thinking of just firing my realtor and doing it myself.

Very easy might be overstating it. Arranging tours with the homeowner individually is a hassle. The reason you hire a realtor is because they have access to the key boxes. A home is a huge purchase, I don't know how many houses a typical person looks at before deciding, but for me it was over a dozen.

I meant easy as in there’s no artificial hurdle. The example of arranging tours displays that agents do provide some value. People like to complain about agents, but they’re free to stick a sign on their yard, purchase online ads, and otherwise do the leg work.

It's also easy to forget that first-time buyers won't have any sense for what's normal, expected, or required during the process. Obviously, you can research this yourself, but 1) there's no substitute for experience; and 2) you're paying a professional because they already know this stuff and you presumably have other things to do.

You can become an expert in the time it takes to research and plan a vacation.

Just use a title agency. Professional, quick and they handle all the nitty gritty and make sure your ass is covered...on both sides of the table.

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