Reply to How many years until realtors are replaced by Redfin/Uber/Zillow/etc?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This is a pretty good (if slightly dated) article on why the real estate brokerage industry hasn't been disrupted.
http://www.economist.com/node/21554204
Key takeaways are agents have more value when homes don't sell themselves in a hot market (duh) and the independent nature of the business.[/quote]
My reading of the article is FAR different from yours.  The article says economists find the realtor market ridiculous and are baffled as to how it survives.  The article offers several theories for why the realtor market has survived:
1. When everyone's getting fat with huge housing prices, no one cares about paying a few % for a realtor.
2. "Clients are suckers" getting tricked by realtors who tell buyers that the seller is paying, while promising sellers that they'll just jack the price to pay for the commission.
3. It's a mini-monopoly with only a few big realtors in each area getting most of the sales, so the monopolistic chief real estate agency can enforce the price for everyone and prevent discounters. 
4. The industry has captured the regulators and uses the regulators to keep the prices up and prevent competition.

The article guesses though that the biggest reason this ridiculous business model survives is because the realtors are using collusion and policing to block price discounters.  Buyer agents steer customers to those homes that pay a full 3% commission, and away from homes that pay the agents less.  Buyer agents blackball sellers that use discounts.  Because this is all stealth, it's very difficult to prove.  [/quote]

This is why Redfin is having trouble disrupting the market. Also, the Real Estate Lobby spends more money than any other to influence politicians, who support their crazy, crooked business.

OP: The answer is: Not Soon Enough! Realtors are dinosaurs. No need for them whatsoever. [/quote]

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