I see more homes for sale by owner now due to high commission rates. With social media and websites galore, why would anyone pay a sellers agent 6-7 percent to sell your home ($35k on a $500k home). Do your own advertising and hire a real estate attorney for a couple grand to handle the paperwork when the deal is struck. Done it a couple times....saved 10s of thousands of dollars this way. Real estate agents are vastly overpaid (my opinion only).....but if people are still willing to pay them, more power to them.

The last ones I talked to wanted 9 percent.

Like said above, realtors are overpriced and unneeded. I never used them when buying so I would automatically have a reason for a 3% reduction (which the seller's realtor would squawk about but get over).

Lots of stories about this. Practically none of them get it right.

Traditionally, seller paid real estate commission to selling agent, who then split it with agent who brought the buyer........that 2nd agent is typically referred to as the "buyers agent", although technically, since he was paid by the seller, he too is an agent of the seller. Although he is working with the buyer, his loyalty is / was to be to the guy paying him......the seller. The lawsuit that challenged this did so as a seller finally asked........"why am I paying the buyer's agent to work against me"?

So going forward, seller will pay his agent. The agent working with the buyer will be paid by the buyer (who was paying both ends anyway), and buyer's agents can now legally do what they have been doing all along........working to get the best deal for the buyer. A true buyer's agent.

All the rest of the crapola in the news is from people who don't have a clue, but do have a lot of ink to waste.