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A part-time realty career can be quite lucrative. An agent could earn nearly $90,000 a year by selling a median-priced home every month and sharing his or her commission with a cooperating agent and associated brokers.

Those that went into RE careers got taken. There are almost more RE agents in Cal than available homes for sale.

There are thousands with RE licenses, yet few have homes for listed for sale. Anyone can get their RE license, and thousands did, but few have have sold any homes, due to the low inventory of homes for sale.

I just sold a rental house in the SF Bay area. Commission was 5%.

I chose the agent carefully, and feel the 5% was well worth it.

I could have listed with one of the do-it-yourself agencies, but what I got was:

1. advice on what repairs/upgrades were valuable
2. contractors to work with on repairs/upgrades
3. discount prices on repairs/upgrades
4. supervision of contractors, and better work. (They came back & fixed everything immediately because they knew if I wasn't satisfied, the agent would not use them again)
5. a fast track on getting the work done--very important when the house is vacant and I am paying the mortgage while these guys fix it up.
6. a sales price 4% over what I would have asked on my own.

Essentially, when compared to a bare-bones commissin of 3%, I got a lot of value added and about 2% more money in my pocket.

As a California RE broker, perhaps my experience is worth sharing.

Nobody is forced to even list with a RE company. They can sell on their own. All that is needed is for the seller to spend the time and money to do the things a real estate practitioner would do.

Advertise, price it correctly, show the property, put up signage, hold open houses, negotiate and write the contract and disclosure documents, help find financing, coordinate with escrow, title, inspection, repairs, etc.

The "for sale by owner" has just one property to sell, yet must have the knowledge, skill, time to do all the above for his single transaction.

So this seller decides to save on commissions, and do all these aspects. He often overlooks that his buyers usually seek to "share" in whatever commissions get avoided.

And often realtors attempt to bring buyers to fsbo's if they can get their half of the commission.

Single family homes in most of Calif. are at mostly now 5 percent, not 6 or 7 percent.

At the end of the day, some sales occur without any commissions. If a seller wants this method, he can do it.

But most sellers consider all aspects, negotiate a fair commission, and recognize it is the price for a fast and smooth transaction.

It is not much different than my situation when I need to replace a vehicle. I can put signs on my car, park it in a good location with my phone number. Answer the calls, make appointments, let them drive it. Then come financing and contracts, plus state vehicle registration.

Or I can go to a vehicle dealer, cut the best deal, and go on with life, not worrying that somebody makes some profit.

Mention is made of "Catalist" and their 3 percent rate. Entities like this, and "Help You Sell" have been around for a long time.

Both started in Orange County. They work better in sellers' markets, but not so well in buyers' markets.

The market is in transition right now. An agent with a buyer doesn't much like to show a 1.5 Percent listing, but most will.

Often the seller and agent will be difficult, giving the buyer and his agent reason to skip on by such a listing. All the more so, in a weakening market.

There is no "price fixing" and sellers are free to do what they want. Just be prepared to do all the steps, spend the advertizing money, answer the phone, be home to meet buyers, etc.

Contractors, architects, stock and bond brokers, lenders, engineers and others offer "expert" services and get paid fees to take total responsibility for contractually defined tasks and results.

One reason for high prices is an efficient market, to match willing sellers and buyers of real estate.

Professional associations outlawing competition and increasing minimum liscencing requirements to limit access is an insidious problem in America.

Almost every organized profession is guilty of it and many are truly damaging to society. Such as the doctors being the only ones allowed to perscribe medication. Even though pharmacists have far more training in the drugs. A doctorate of pscyhology can't even perscribe an anti-depressant to a patient.

Its these things that take what should be a small cost to consumers for a basic service. And turns it into a huge cost that the poor can't afford, and which drains the middle class standard of living.

HEre in the POLICE STATE of New Yorek, the rats in this industry command between 5 and 7 % out of customers. No, you don't have to use them but it is out right theft and since, magically, ALL of them do this and ALL of them use the MLS (Multiple Listing Service) it IS a form of collusion. They all wash each others back with the sharing of the commissions. It is so very gross.

I sold my home for 225,000. They would have received 15,750. I paid 185,000 for this home initially. My gain for the sale, for all I did to it and for the naturally increasing value in the area I lived was 40,000. I worked quite hard to get it. Since I poured a little over 10,000 into it my gain was now 30,000. This means that of the increase in value of the home I would only get LESS THAN HALF.

FOR SALE BY OWNER. It is easier than you think and surprise surprise...you get it all. And with the realators pumping millions into their propaganda campaigns to make everyone think its hard, too much paperwork and a risk they are lying.

Its MY money, not theirs and I was offended by the outright theft their little work would have netted them.

When I purchased my home 18 years ago, the seller paid a very fat commission to 2 agents who really did nothing to facilitlate the sale of this house. I found the house myself and had to do all the prepatory legwork. At closin, when we looked over the title, we found a major mistake in the title papers. Guess who had to run it down and get it corrected? The title company threw both realtors out of the room when we finally closed. Only the attorneys were allowed to stay in the room with us.

The taxes were quoted to us wrong. The split on the taxes between the buyer and the seller were wrong FIVE times (the same number of times that we went to closing). The parameters of the land were quoted wrong. The zoning of the area was misrepresented. The perks and warranties of the realtor selling (Coldwell Banker) the property were misrepresented. The only thing the realtors did was to erect a barrier between buyer and seller. I don't know what I'll do when it comes time to sell this place -- certainly I won't hire either of those jerks.