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Comment by sokoloff | Hacker News Reader

This matches my experience as a buyer as well. It won’t get you 100% of the buyers, but it will get you way over 50% and likely over 75%.

If I was working with an agent, I’m sure they’d discourage me from that listing, but as a seller in a reasonable market, I’m willing to give up a few possible buyers to save 5-6% on a 7-figure transaction. (I’ve also seen FSBOs that offer X% to buyer agents.)

I will say that agents did do some work to make the transaction complete on both of my house purchases. Negotiations after the inspection can be tense and a good agent can help both sides get to the closing table.

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sokoloff, on the point about the second negotiation on the inspection. The industry has this backwards. We recommend the per-purchase inspection for several reasons. 1. It takes the liability away from the seller stating what the condition is and moves it to the inspector. 2. by sharing it with the buyer before they make an offer you save them a bit of money, earn some trust as showing transparency, and 3. eliminating the stress of the second negotiation 10 days before closing and no one is available to fix a problem. You are making your home easier to buy. The easier you make it for the buyer, the faster you will sell and the better your price will be. Most buyers want a home in great condition.

PropBox would be very happy with buyers at 50 percent of the market. PropBox believes that there are good agents but there are way too many not so good agents. It is hard to distinguish what kind of agent you have until you start working with them.

> way too many not so good agents

This is exactly my experience. In shopping for my first house, I had a clear idea of what I wanted and a budget that matched that and the first four agents I worked with were nearly useless. (This was before web-MLS was a thing.) The fifth was a breath of fresh air and I would happily use them again.

Are you saving 5-6% but selling at 10% less than you could? In some markets bidding wars are common. The extra 25-50% of bidders pushes up the price usually worth more than 5%

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