>I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the realtor [...] Why do we need realtors at this point? Everyone finds houses themselves online nowadays

>I'm still waiting for someone to completely eliminate the realtor [...] Why do we need realtors at this point? Everyone finds houses themselves online nowadays. The need for realtors comes mostly from the sellers not the buyers. (Yes, some buyers also contract a "buyer's agent" but the point remains that realtors are still desirable to help market and show a home.) Unlike the "dis-intermediation" that happened to travel agents (online flight/hotel booking), and librarians (google searches), or video rental clerks (Netflix), the elimination of realtors to represent the most expensive component in an owner's net worth is not going to happen because of a slick point & click housing website. Consider that the vast majority of people don't even post their garage items on ebay for sale. Compared to that, selling a house is a much more complicated transaction. There's a categorization in sales called "low touch" and "high touch" transactions. A "low touch" transaction would be buying a loaf of bread from the grocery store. For the forseeable future (at least decades), selling homes will be a "high touch" transaction and sellers will want the reassurance and "warm & fuzzies" from another human middleman to help them fetch the best price. (E.g., the owner would presumably hire the appropriate realtor with the reputation and track record to quickly sell homes similar to his/her property.) However, that doesn't mean more efficiencies can't be wrung from the system. Many think the typical realtor's commission of ~6% is way too high so it seems inevitable that entrepreneurs will revolutionize the market. Regardless of the new landscape (e.g. maybe no more MLS), the human intermediaries will still be there.