With new rule changes, are real estate agents still necessary?

( NewsNation ) — New real estate commission rules are encouraging some to skip the agent altogether, finding the process more straightforward than they expected.

Gabrielle Hillman, 30, and her roommate recently sold their Chicago condo without a real estate agent.

“It’s definitely time-consuming — but all things considered — to save $30,000 we were happy to do it,” she said.

Historically, agent fees have come from the seller’s proceeds, usually around 5 to 6% of the sale price, which gets split between the buyer’s and seller’s agents. But, due to recent changes in how commissions are advertised and paid, Hillman felt she had more flexibility to go it alone.

To determine the asking price, she researched condos in the neighborhood and figured out what a comparable unit had sold for. Instead of relying on an agent for marketing, Hillman paid a company $100 to get the condo on the multiple listing service (MLS) — a private database agents use to list homes for sale.

When it was time to close, the 30-year-old hired a real estate attorney, a step she said was critical and more cost-efficient than working with an agent.

“The couple hundred that (attorneys) are doing this for is nothing compared to a couple thousand that you’re paying an agent,” she said.

Ultimately, Hillman agreed to pay a commission to the buyer’s agent but she was able to negotiate a lower fee than the norm just a few months ago.

All told, she said the condo sold in roughly three weeks: “It was much easier, I would say, than expected.”

The New York Times recently highlighted another woman who decided to sell her home without an agent via Facebook marketplace. Joanne Y. Cleaver, 66, estimated she saved $25,000 in real estate fees.

Most people still use real estate agents

As part of the $418 million settlement between home sellers and the National Association of Realtors (NAR), listings on the MLS will no longer advertise the buying agent’s commission upfront — a tweak meant to deter agents from steering clients away from lower-commission deals.

It’s one of several changes that will give Americans more negotiating power when it comes to agent fees and may push more consumers to forgo them entirely.

Data suggests the sluggish housing market already has real estate agents fleeing the industry , but the trend could accelerate if commissions drop off.

But that outcome is not a foregone conclusion and the do-it-yourself approach comes with risk, especially for those unfamiliar with the process.

Amanda Pendleton, Zillow’s home trends expert, thinks the recent market — characterized by elevated mortgage rates, low inventory and high prices — has made agents’ expertise more important, not less.

“What we’re seeing is that homes that are priced and marketed correctly are selling pretty quickly, in about 20 days or so, but homes that are not are lingering on the market for a couple of months,” she said.

Last year, for sale by owner (FSBO) sales accounted for just 7% of home sales, an all-time low, according to the NAR . The real estate trade group found that the typical FSBO home sold for almost $100,000 less than those sold with an agent’s help.

“A mistake could cost you tens of thousands of dollars, so having an expert by your side is critical if you want to net top dollar,” Pendleton said.

On top of marketing and pricing advice, good agents help their clients through the entire process, using their local knowledge to negotiate better deals.

According to a 2023 survey from Clever Real Estate, home sellers who used an agent were more satisfied with their experience than those who didn’t.

“We don’t expect that the settlement is going to dramatically change the way that people ultimately buy and sell homes,” Pendleton said. “What it does do is it brings more transparency to the process and that’s a really good thing for buyers and for sellers.”

Are real estate lawyers a better option?

The question is whether real estate agents are the best experts for the job. Real estate attorney Doug Miller doesn’t think they are.

“There’s no barrier to entry to become a Realtor, and as a result, you have a huge number of incompetent people out there doing this,” said Miller, who started Consumer Advocates in American Real Estate (CAARE) , a nonprofit that educates consumers about the real estate industry.

Instead, Miller said you’re “far better off” — in terms of price and quality — going to a lawyer who specializes in residential real estate.

The Minnesota attorney has spent decades trying to make the residential real estate industry fairer for consumers and his ideas helped shape the antitrust lawsuits against the NAR that led to the recent changes.

“Attorneys can only represent one side of the transaction,” he said. “We’re trained in how to handle conflicts of interest, Realtors are not.”

Marketing remains the biggest challenge

Using sites like Zillow, sellers have gained some freedom to market their homes but Miller pointed out that FSBO listings are on a different section of the site that receives less traffic.

Hillman and her roommate experienced that limitation firsthand. After initially listing the unit on Zillow, she said interest picked up only after they paid to get the unit on the MLS.

“The biggest obstacle to getting a house sold is marketing exposure, and the Realtors have created the multiple listing service by taking their client data and compiling it and creating this database and then limiting access to it to only other MLS members,” Miller said.

He’s hopeful the new rules will make it easier for sellers to go around agents and recommends going through a company, as Hillman did, to get listed on the MLS.

Miller also emphasized the importance of taking good photos, something Hillman and her roommate paid to have done.

Hillman plans to use the knowledge she’s gained in future real estate transactions.

“I just bought another condo. When I eventually sell that condo, I will not use a Realtor to sell it,” she said.

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