The use of the word cartel seems inappropriate here, it's pretty loaded and biased. The trial just started, perhaps the media should wait until the verdict before pushing their opinion.
It is often the unsavory industries that get hit with this label, but there also exist cartels supported by governments/public. Diamonds and wine are two obvious examples.
I think that’s only possible due to cartel behavior.
Of course, we’ll see how the trial goes but it seems like a valid opinion to me.
I have to say it is very expensive to be an agent, mainly because you need a huge marketing budget and most people are wasting your time - either because they can't afford a house and don't realize it until you sit down and walk them through the numbers, or are intentionally just using you with no intention to have you even potentially represent them. There is also a lot more work involved in listing a house or representing a buyer than people give credit to, which is often discounted as almost nothing (as I see in this thread as "just do X or Y" - exactly like people do with devs thinking they should have an advanced website for $200. BTW, 90% of FSBO wind up being sold with an agent. It is not as straightforward as it seems.)
I would not be able to operate offering 50% off. So yes, I think fair trade is a bit lower than the typical 5% (2.5% per side) charged in northern California, but it is not 2-3% either. My personal lowest commission is 1.5% for one side, and that is for extremely high value property. I am without a doubt one of the poorer Americans on this site, and have a family to feed, so I cannot be convinced my work has no value but everybody else's work here is worth 10x. There is no doubt a real problem in the industry and I refused to work in it for many, many years until I found a way to sidestep it. But purely monetarily, it is not of the magnitude that is naively assumed. For me, the far bigger problem is in attitude; in marketing at all costs.
You might not be, but others might be able to optimize out the costs you describe.
Right now there’s not much incentive because most everyone charged that.
Personally it seems odd to me that everything is percent based. It’s not 10x cost and work to sell a $100k house than a $1M.
Not one person likes high costs and there are millions of professionals attempting to optimize every day. There is plenty of incentive. It is a lot of money. But maybe walmart will come and make everything ~~better~~ cheaper and unbearable.
Sincerely,
An antitrust economist.