Economy

Say it with me now: "I have never done this job, and I do not know what I am talking about. I sound just like every boomer criticizing others for making 'too much' for doing hard jobs that I don't do and are already struggling to make ends meet.

For everybody's information:

1. My partner is a real estate agent who busts her ass looking up properties for rent and making listings on platforms to get the word out on them because people simply do not want to or do not know how to or do not know where to look for these kinds of things without them. She spends HOURS driving around town to tour these places with clients, many of whom want to see multiple in a day, all of which they expect her to find and line up for tours that they expect her to schedule with the property managers. Then, most of the time these scumlords will withhold documents, add fees, or argue for why certain repairs don't need to be made before her clients move in, and she has to fight to fix all that.

2. Real estate agents don't get paid a percentage from their clients. They make a percentage commission from the landlord or seller. Why? Because these people want to rent their apartments out or want to sell their homes and either cannot or do not know how or have been failing to do so themselves. Sometimes, over a year. My partner is the reason those repairs get made to an otherwise sellable home sometimes because she and the client agree that the landlord is an asshat for not making them, and her client "will not agree to rent unless the repairs are made".

3. In this situation, the SELLER was complaining that they had to pay a 3% commission to a real estate agent to help them sell their house. This service now forces THE PROSPECTIVE BUYER OR RENTER to pay "$49 for each home tour and $199 for an offer prep session. If they want more hand-holding, they can cough up a flat fee of $1,799, which includes up to five home tours and two offer prep sessions, with additional services available on an à la carte basis" for services which were previously free to them.

So all in all, the world is worse for people trying to find a home thanks to all this just so people who were already going to turn a profit can make even more.