"than the broker could have sold it for if he shopped around" In reality most brokers simply take any calls that come in from commercial MLS types (say loopnet

"than the broker could have sold it for if he shopped around" In reality most brokers simply take any calls that come in from commercial MLS types (say loopnet.com) and may call a few people and put in a nominal amount of effort. Speaking of loopnet a few years ago I put a property on that site. One day I get a call from a broker for his client. I immediately let him know that I will give him 6% commission for the deal. And of course he was very motivated then to convince his client to take the property because if he found him another property it not only is work for him (that was listed by another broker) he would only get 2.5 or 3%. And another owner (if there were any) might give him a hard time about paying commission. By the way this type of thing isn't learned in Wharton (where I went btw.). It is learned by observing what others do and reverse engineering things that you see that are out there that are happening. And interpreting your own reaction to events to draw conclusions as to why people behave the way that they do.