One thing I haven't seen yet in this thread is that buyers' agents actually make use of some pretty anti-competitive behavior on top of the regular cartel stuff

One thing I haven't seen yet in this thread is that buyers' agents actually make use of some pretty anti-competitive behavior on top of the regular cartel stuff. Not only do they get access to MLS listings a few days before they go "public" in most areas, but they also are starting to deal with "pre-listed" houses that they are able to know are about to go on sale via their personal networks. Of course, that's probably been happening forever, but in hot markets it's becoming more popular simply due to the low average time on market for appropriately-priced homes. Also, I've taken a few classes on real estate (free) from real estate agents before and one of them told me that he often gets solicited by crooked inspectors who will exchange references for a-ok inspection results. Plus agents on neither side / inspectors can easily be held responsible unless there is provable, outright fraud. I think maybe real estate agents would be worth it if they also carried some kind of transactional liability but since they don't...