The problem is that there's no consistency, and you end up paying the same price regardless of how much value the realtor provides. When I bought my current ho

The problem is that there's no consistency, and you end up paying the same price regardless of how much value the realtor provides. When I bought my current house, it was the second one I looked at, out of several listings that my partner and I found on Redfin ourselves. Our realtor's expertise was useful when we were making an offer, and when dealing with financing and paperwork, but I don't think she provided $50k of value. If I were paying a fairly generous hourly rate for her time, she would have made less than $5k. Sure, sometimes a buyer's agent spends 100 hours helping their clients, finding and showing property after property after property, and has to deal with tricky negotiations, and is maybe worth the 2.5% commission. But I don't want to pay $50k for 10-15 hours of work; that's ridiculous. (And of course I was paying for the seller's agent's commission as well.) Another house I was involved in buying was similar: second house we looked at, only one counter-offer needed. If/when I buy again I will likely not use an agent. The new rules around not foisting the commissions onto the buyer will help too.