For real-estate, assuming you are the seller: Let's say you bought a house with $500K and now looking to sell it. The real-estate agent finds a buyer for $550K.

For real-estate, assuming you are the seller: Let's say you bought a house with $500K and now looking to sell it. The real-estate agent finds a buyer for $550K. That's a $50K profit for you. The real-estate agent could work a little bit harder and find you are $600K buyer. That's a 100% gain for you. However, the agent is getting paid a fixed percentage of the total sale. For him, it's only a 9% increase; and that does not justify the extra-work. The incentives are highly not aligned. If you do not understand that, you'd be disappointed. If you do understand that, you'll see where your agent is coming from.