A real-estate agent pushes back on a New York Times article criticizing agent fees. He argues agents operate in a free market, most are independent contractors without guaranteed income, and their localized knowledge has real value. He calls out commenters for demanding job security for federal workers while attacking agents.
Another article has run in the New York Times with some fella who complained about what it was going to cost to use a real estate professional. He interviewed multiple people in his market, didn't like what they were charging. And he was complaining about this as though there's some kind of problem in the market. But there's a reality here. You can do it by yourself. People have been able to for sale by owner and buy by themselves for years. There's all kinds of resources out there. If you want to get your real estate advice from websites and apps, then please feel free. But if you're going to use a professional, we have the right as small businesses to charge what we charge, which means some people say yes and some people say no. And that's a free market. The other reality is this: there's a time cost to using a real estate agent. Now, this fella seems to think that everything's going to be easy and he can just put his house on the market and it goes away. But y'all, the market is shifting right now, and some houses sell quickly and some houses don't sell at all. And the pricing is all over the map, and it's very geographically specific and inside any geographic area. Each neighborhood performs differently. So, when you call a real estate professional, you're not just hiring them for your house. If you're hiring somebody who knows real estate and knows the market, you're hiring all the information and knowledge we bring to the table from years and years of doing real estate. And if you don't want to pay us, that's cool, you can move on. But we are independent contractors who get to set our own fees. Now, I'm also going to point out there's an interesting dichotomy in today's world where the same people who fuss about federal workers losing their jobs, especially if these are probationary period people who had no guarantee of employment. The same people who defend federal workers want to tear real estate agents limb from limb. And you know what's crazy about that is we already work for free most of the time because we are 1099s with no guarantee of employment or of compensation. So if a federal worker is more important than a 1099, then then go ahead and use a federal worker to sell your house. But why don't you just leave all us independent contractors alone? And if you want to use us, interview us. And if you don't, that's fine too. But stop using the comment section to virtue signal.
