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zzyzzx
@
2012 Mar 8, 4:21am
BusinessWeek did a story on this several years ago. They said technology is doing to residential real estate salesmen what it did to car salesmen about ten years ago. Information is now widely available and the technology to access that information is highly pervasive. There's really no such thing as getting screwed at a car dealership anymore. I know plenty of people who don't even buy new cars these days. I haven't bought a new car in over ten years and don't know if I ever will again thanks to Craigslist.
Last time I bought a car was October 1995!
Houses, by contrast are much more unique and individual. People find the house they want, and then try and get that specific home for an acceptable price. It's not like they can go buy that exact same house at a different dealership. Real estate salespeople do much more facilitating a deal then hard-selling a deal.
You can usually get a home that's close enough. The whole thinking that housing is unique is mostly in your head.
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I am hoping that RE agents eventually go the way of travel agents and the dodo bird.
Would like advice on how to buy a house without using a buyer's agent. Sheesh, all they do is open some lock boxes for you (can't the listing agent do that?) and drive you around in their big fancy cars (no thanks I can drive myself to open houses). In 2 months he hasn't told me about anything that I didn't already find listed online myself.
If you know what you want and you know the neighborhood and the comps, do you really need a buyer's agent?
Can't I just go to several of the top-selling listing agents in the neighborhoods I want to live and tell them what I am looking for. When a house I want comes up, offer dual agency and hire my own RE lawyer and inspector.
What are the pros and cons of this? What am I missing?