[C19fan]

Considering each house is different and the considerable amount of red tape involved, I seriously doubt buying/selling real estate will be like buying a stock. But I do believe the current model of real estate agents is obsolete with information so easily available. Agents used to have a decisive as they had a monopoly on the listing information. Housing is the only object I know about where one needs a 3rd party to shop and complete the transaction.

[C19fan]

I always rolled my eye when I was in the housing market and see real estate agents pull up in fancy cars for doing nothing.

[Harpotoo]

I have bought all 3 of my homes without an agent and sold my prior 2 homes on my own.
No agent is worth 3-6% of the value of any of my homes.

[Responsibility2nd]

Do you remember Travel Agents? I do. Even used one or two many years and years ago. The internet has made them obsolete.

Real Estate Agents aren’t quite there yet. They still have a useful role in buying and selling.

But it’s quite clear the internet is a predominate player in the real estate market.

[IYAS9YAS]

Housing is the only object I know about where one needs a 3rd party to shop and complete the transaction.

Ever buy a new car?

[Bob434]

Many people die in homes- Homes are deadly- We need sensible home controls now- who are these cretins trying to make home buying easier? Do they not care about people’s lives?

We need red flag laws to identify potential home buyers who may kill someone in their home at some point in their lives, and a national registry to record who owns what, and universal background checks on potential buyers

[dfwgator]

The lesson I learned is that if you stay in a home for more than 10 years, you’d better plan to pay a lot to upgrade a home if you want to sell it, because peoples’ tastes change a lot over time.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have sold our current house after 5 years, instead of 18 years, we had to pay a lot to get the house ready for sale.

[I want the USA back]

Sure. No it won’t. You need an attorney! You need a title search! You need an inspection when you buy.

[Parley Baer]

In California all you need is an escrow company and a bank. In New York you also get to throw in the lawyers along with the real estate agent. What mess.

[suthener]

After a divorce, I bought a cheap house in preparation for retirement for $56,000. It took weeks to get financing. I had to do stupid stuff like give them a letter stating how I would pay for my other house (rental) if it became vacant. It was the stupidest exercise I could ever imagine. What was the most aggravating thing was that with my credit I guarantee I could go to a car dealership and walk out with a $60,000 vehicle in an hour.It was ridiculous.

[Svartalfiar]

Considering each house is different and the considerable amount of red tape involved, I seriously doubt buying/selling real estate will be like buying a stock. But I do believe the current model of real estate agents is obsolete with information so easily available. Agents used to have a decisive as they had a monopoly on the listing information. Housing is the only object I know about where one needs a 3rd party to shop and complete the transaction.

What I find ridiculous in house purchasing is all the crazy extra crap you have to pay for. I don't remember all of it, but a $240M house includes something like $20M in closing/purchasing costs. There's a good 20 different fees/other, and they vary like crazy between banks - I had loan closure disclosures from both USAA and Fairway, and it was amazing the differences. Appraisal fee, title endorsement, recording, settlement, survey, origination, etc etc fees, were COMPLETELY DIFFERENT between the lenders. The total costs came out to ± a couple thousand, but all the different fees were completely different - both amounts and what fees were even line-itemed. It would be amazing to have a home purchase where all the extra $$ weren't involved - you had a simple sheet with the purchase price, costs of building/pest inspection, .gov fees, and that's about it. All the fees should be standardized and simple, like buying just about any other random item from someone. Even a vehicle purchase is simple - purchase price, sales tax (bullshit on a secondary sale), and title transfer. Not too difficult.