There are so many sites and nothing centralized has really taken off. Even when you boil it down to one city. Wrong. There IS something centralized: it's ca

There are so many sites and nothing centralized has really taken off. Even when you boil it down to one city. Wrong. There IS something centralized: it's called the Multiple Listing Service, and ONLY Brokers and Realtors have "access" to it. They are salespeople, and salespeople compete only with each other. That 6 percent commission is the unwavering aspect of their model -- they built it to ensure that it always gets dropped into their shark tank. Consumers do not benefit from this system, ever, and every single entity in the real estate industry wants to keep it that way. Even the fact that brokers exist is a sign of market inefficiency. Why do I need an intermediary to find an apartment? You don't. However, brokers are not the intermediaries; they are at the top of the pyramid scheme. After studying this industry from every possible angle, my conclusion is that purveyors of the current system are rotten to the core. Their lobbying group (the National Association of Realtors: http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=s http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/top.php?indexType=s) is about as rotten as a swimming pool of maggot-covered dead skunks that's been sitting in the sun for a week. The pecking order is as such: Broker Realtors + Mortgage Brokers Agent Realtors + Mortgage Loan Agents (Bankers) Leasing Agents (Realtors) Property Management Companies AKA "Landlords" And all of them, working together, have only one incentive, and that is insanely high rents (yes, rents). As long as rents are high, the rest of their system is safe, and home ownership remains an unattainable pipe dream for most people. Which it really is, unless you're one of them. Realtors with their glossy booklets and shiny websites sell the illusion of ownership, and it works! Poof, and all of a sudden, it becomes so "necessary" to have a Realtor to help people navigate the scary world of shopping for a home. (See also: the housing boom of 2006.) Build an excel spreadsheet that shows how much interest vs principle people pay on a typical 30-year loan over time. Now figure out how long it'll take to pay off the commission that your Realtor earns for his 2.5 hours of "work" on your behalf. Oh, and don't forget to include every penny of your life savings you've already forked over as the "down payment." (Down payments don't go toward equity, they go to pay the salespeople!) Pity the people who have been hoodwinked into thinking that their house payments are actually going to equity, that that 30-year mortgage means that they're going to own their house some day. The banks are too smart to let people do that, that's why they invented refinancing! As long as the greatest portion of income people earn goes to rent, neither savings nor long-term equity can be obtained. As long as people are unable to build equity, they are trapped in a system that essentially forces them into paying whatever rents are demanded of them. Most people who live in Silicon Valley know this: 1K for a 0 bedroom apartment? Really? The solution for consumers is NOT going to come by making it easier for Brokers and Landlords / Agents to hook up and control prices, that's for sure. This is a recipe for disaster on a grand scale.