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Comment by blairbeckwith | Hacker News Reader

I’ll look past the rudeness of your comment and actually address your point.

At least in Canada - I would assume the model is similar in the US - standard real estate transaction commissions using an agent are 4-5%, so your home wouldn’t need to be over a million to save $20k by avoiding an agent.

Also, in many metros, the prices of homes are so high that a million dollar home ain’t what it used to be. We can’t and shouldn’t assume that someone selling a million dollar house is a sophisticated and wealthy actor.

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Sorry if my comment sounded rude. Harsh, yes, but didn't think it was rude.

Of course you will get lots of negative feedback, especially when you put something in front of thousands of strangers. It looks like you're handling that alright but just to give you a bit of comfort that's very expected.

Agent fees in the UK are typically 1.5-2% - so even for a property of 500k, 2% is 10k. And average property prices are well below 500k.

6% is typical in the US (3% for seller's agent, another 3% for buyers agent).

6% of $500k is $30k. $419k is the median sale price in the US according to Redfin.

It's possible to negotiate the percent down, but typically that is only common on particularly expensive listings (not super common below 7-figures).

I purchased a house in New York last year. I found it on Zillow and showed up and bought it without an agent. They still charged the seller 6% (the seller agent got double the commission because I didn't have an agent, and they made themselves my agent of record for the purpose of the transaction - interestingly this is legal in NY, but not legal in all states). And because the seller agent knew they were getting double commission if they sold to me, they did a good job fending away other potential buyers (which I'm not complaining about as a buyer, but would be pissed about if I were the seller).

There are lots of reasons to ditch real estate agents. They charge way too much relative to the value they bring most transactions.

I found the house we live in now on my own, toured it at an open house, and once I decided I was serious, I engaged an agency on the terms that I would get a 75 basis point rebate if I bought that specific house through them. They agreed, the agency and agent took their 225bps, I got 75bps (of my own money) back and the agent got a relatively easy sale under her belt.

It might not always be possible, but it was worth the trouble to try to set up. (Redfin also offers a similar structure in some markets if you don’t want to try to negotiate it on your own.)

25% rebate isn't bad but you should be getting more for the little work the agents do.

I did the same in NY and got back 75% of the buyers commission. There is a big business opportunity to setup a network of agents in all states (where leagl) that advertise buyers rebates for home buyers that want to do all the work.

Wow what a rip off! Joys of capitalism hey. And when you try to just deal with buyer/seller directly you'l hear all sorts of made-up reasons as to why it's "important" to do via agent. Most people are too scared to take any amount of risk, which gives companies chance to rip people off. 30k just to sell a house is ridiculus!

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