"Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you." That is great advice, no matter what kind of transaction you're entering into. I actually got

"Just remember that the realtor works for himself, not for you." That is great advice, no matter what kind of transaction you're entering into. I actually got involved with the real estate industry because I hated how it worked. It is ridiculous that incentives are so misaligned in this industry. I thought I could change some things in my small corner of the world, but I was too naive, and it will take much longer than I thought for me to have any impact. Unfortunately, most consumers simply don't care enough about their money to educate themselves. Sad and irrational, but true. I will not work with anyone who stands to make more money simply by getting me to pay more. There is NO WAY they can represent my interests if that is the case. In my real estate brokerage, buyers pay for the actual services they use. They know the cost up-front, and there are no incentives for me to try to get them to buy a specific property or a more expensive property, because I'm not paid based on an (arbitrary) percentage of the property price. In 99% of cases, the money they spend on me will be spent whether I help them or not, so my fees aren't even an extra expense. Yet I still have to spend (relatively) much more time than my competitors to educate them about how and why I can help them, just because I am different. It's like the entrepreneurial cliches about the stupidity of introducing a completely new product (pioneers get arrows in their backs, right? It's easier to move to territory that has already been settled.) There are real estate companies with good business models and good agents...they're just very rare :-(