Yes, this. Good agents are the ones you come back to when you want another house. Good agents know this, and live off of referrals from happy customers. The

Yes, this. Good agents are the ones you come back to when you want another house. Good agents know this, and live off of referrals from happy customers. The fees are fixed w.r.t. the price of the home, but the agent is exposed to the risk of how much work is involved in getting a buyer/seller pair matched up. Both agents can be on the hook for some time -- houses may not sell for a while, or either buyer/seller decide to stop trying to transact. That's sunk cost by the agents. So if you're not asking very much of the agent, or giving much risk to them, it's not worth 6%. But that risk has to be accounted for somewhere, and spread across clients like any other risk. Also, if you're doing a sale + purchase, you can usually negotiate that 6% down with your agent.