Sure, Sturgeon's law and all that. The problem is you don't know how poor a realtor will perform at selling the property until you sign the agency agreement, an

Sure, Sturgeon's law and all that. The problem is you don't know how poor a realtor will perform at selling the property until you sign the agency agreement, and once you've signed that agreement your BATNA becomes taking the property off the market for six months or more. And then the second time around, trying to negotiate those terms with several different realtors was like talking to a brick wall. None of them wanted to understand that as two parties sitting down to sign a legal document, you can agree to cross bits out. Full on steering wheel tossed out the window for the game of chicken. I'm sure there are many realtors who do a decent job - the problem is the incentives are just set up all wrong. I wouldn't actually mind if they got a 20% or 25% commission on every dollar over the market appraisal of the property. It's just ridiculous that they're taking 6% from the first dollar when the property would sell itself for a low amount.