I like the loan officer comparison... but I much prefer the Realtor angle.  I will never forget a closing I did with a less than knowledgeable Realtor.  She questioned a couple of my fees at the closing, in front of the client. "What is this ALTA endorsement fee for $75?  I have NEVER seen that before.  Does my client really need to pay that?"

I was caught off guard.  How could a Realtor have never heard of an ALTA endorsement?  It is a standard endorsement that 99% of loan transactions require.  Further more... it was $75!  Once I got the buyer to understand that it was indeed a standard requirement and I wasn't ripping him off, he signed the docs and I handed the realtor a check for over $6,000!  No one questioned that fee. 

I believe that the 6% commission is going to be the death nail in the real estate market.  With the average price of a home at over $200,000, the average real estate commission is over $12,000!  You could not convince me that the Realtors do the least amount of work and collect, by far, the most compensation.

I am particularly amazed that with the glut of Realtors that competition has not forced more competitive commissions. Why is nobody investigating that?  Well, I guess when you have a professional association with more than 1.2 million members and one of the strongest lobbying groups in the country, you can pretty much do what you want.

Just my take on it,
Robert A. Franco
SOURCE OF TITLE