At the urging of our famous Broker Bryant, I am making this a post. While reading one of BB's greatest posts, I was directed to read:http://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=978. Upon doing so, I discovered that one of their regular contributors over there is a Mr. Michael Cook. Mr. Cook wrote a horribly misinformed perspective about real estate agents and the "monopoly" they have created. The following is my response:
"Mr. Cook,
What is a "standard commission" that you referred to? You clearly don't know my market. I've seen commissions from 2% to 10%. Where is the monopoly?
You even mentioned 5%-7% varied commissions. How is 5%, 5.25%, 5.5%, 5.75%, 6%, 6.25%, 6.5%, 6.75%, and 7% FIXED? Even from YOUR statistics (which aren't accurate) how does 9 different commission rates equate to "fixed"? Look it up in the dictionary. Where is the monopoly?
You stated that you negotiated down your commission on the sale of your "slam dunk" property. You couldn't have negotiated anything if it were as you called it "fixed". Where is the monopoly?
The reason the Justice Department is looking into the real estate business is because of uninformed people like you whining about commissions. If there's so much money to be made in real estate, why do 9 out of 10 people fail in the first year of the business? If there's so much money to be made in real estate, why does our company (the number one company in sales in our region) only make an average of $140 per transaction? Where is the monopoly?
You commented, "So why have consumers not demanded lower prices", what? Have you seen teachers salaries decrease? What about police and fire fighters? The reason most people's income doesn't go down is because of the free market system of supply and demand. You see, the average person isn't interested in working nights, weekends, during their child's soccer tournament, on a sunny Saturday when the golf course is calling, on their birthday, on their anniversary, getting calls at all hours of the day including dinner and sex, and most people don't care to replenish their flyer boxes and try to drive in open house signs into the frozen ground when it is -3 degrees out like today! You see, it's the tough ones that survive this business. It's the value received by the consumers for services rendered that keeps the commissions at a fair level. Where is the monopoly?
You didn't step on my toes, but you stomped on common sense all over the place!
Mr. "NYCJoe",
Do you go into a private club and expect them to serve you dinner when you aren't a member and haven't paid your dues? What about a private golf course? Do you expect to play their course when you haven't paid the dues that support their greens and staff? If you have a hammer and nail bag, do you expect a carpenter's union to give you work when you haven't served an apprenticeship or paid your union dues that support their organization? There's another hundred analogies out there but hopefully you get the point. No one, including the DOJ, can claim a monopoly here when all someone has to do is pay a fee to join and pay a fee to support the services NAR offers to its members. Or they could go the more expensive route and start their own organization (and I'm sure that they wouldn't want to charge anyone for providing all these services to them because that, in their minds, would be a monopoly).
Did General Motors cry "foul" at Ford?
Go on out and start your own association/organization if you want. Or join the rest of us hard-working, PROFESSIONALS in NAR! Wake up! There ain't no free lunch in life!
IF YOU WANT TO DANCE TO THE MUSIC, YOU GOTTA PAY THE PIPER! 
Lucky 
"
Well? What say ye "Rainers"? Shall we "Rain" on his parade?
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