I think this very much depends on the agent. My wife is an agent and busts her ass. When she's a seller agent, if it's small jobs like painting a room, covering up spots, changing a massively outdated light fixture, she does it her self. She's spent days a time landscaping.

Also when it comes to pricing, it helps to know the market. She will list a house for 8% under market value because she knows it will draw interest and end in a bidding war with escalation clauses.

She also knows other agents and other lenders and that's very important when you have a timeline. One offer may look good but you know the agent and know they will give you an artifically high offer and then ask for 10's of thousands in remedies. Or if you're trying to get a deal done on a timeline so you can get another house and a buyer comes in with a lender that's just notoriously bad at doing things on time. You may take an offer for a few thousand less when you know a deal will end on time.

Like most things, you get what you pay for and there's plenty of people out there willing to take your money and do nothing. There are good realtors and bad ones.