Real Estate Agents

I've spent a lot of time thinking about discomfort and resentment lately, and then unrelatedly had to think kindly of Real Estate Agents.

I think I figured out why the population 'hates' Real Estate Agents, but still keep paying massive fees to them to do their job, year after year, even though the Internet exists now as a way of sellers and buyers to find each other.

People feel really uncomfortable talking about money at the best of times; talking about the sums of money involved in buying a house is REALLY uncomfortable. The real estate agent is a person who sits between potential buyers and sellers and absorbs that discomfort. 

Their real service is not the advertising and open homes - it is the absorption of discomfort. e.g. haggling over price with a dispassionate middle-man is easier than looking the other person in the eye.

In addition, when people start feeling resentment about the 1.5% fees they pay the agent, the agent also implicitly allows the seller to misplace that resentment - the sellers don't have to internalise their resentment that they wasted 1.5% of the sale price because they wanted to avoid the discomfort of talking about money - they can place the resentment onto the real estate agent, deciding that they are all cheats and crooks who don't deserve their outrageous fees.

Maybe real estate agents are providing a valuable service after all, just not the one we think they are providing?

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