On the one hand - you are right that the hourly figure is high. It just wont be THAT high. For example 20 mins per showing assumes they teleported to the apart

On the one hand - you are right that the hourly figure is high. It just wont be THAT high. For example 20 mins per showing assumes they teleported to the apartment, right? You didn't include all of the fixed costs, like the broker's rent, staff, insurances, cars etc. You didn't include the time spent haggling with the property owners. So lets assume the pay is lower but still high - say $200 an hour. That is still alot. Why aren't people advertising on craiglist themselves. On to my second point: I don't live in the US. Buy my wife sold her apartment herself without an agent (broker) for a good price. She tried an agent first but they were not interested in putting in that much effort. So I agree that these overpaid agents are not always needed. So why do we need brokers/agents in 2014 when most of the work is marketing, which the internet takes care of (and isn't a lot of work)? Premium properties and fixer-uppers excepted!