It’s no different than the ridiculous notion that “the seller pays broker’s commission”. It’s baked into the price and the buyer is still paying it, otherwise a home would cost X% less.
The National Association of Realtors is a huge political lobby that works to perpetuate the racket.
Compass started as Urban Compass and wanted to distrupt the racket! But eventually decide to join in on it and become a VC backed brokerage with better “technology”.
No one has yet been able to educate consumers on the insane mismatch between value and price among RE brokers.
is it still better to do that? yes. Because i can now compare the cost of rental, fees included on a comparison site, instead of looking at the place i want and finding it out it has a hidden charge.
this is why they changed the law in the uk so the landlord has to pick, becasue it means they will be incentivised to put it into the rent, and this way its STILL better for the renter because now they are able to compare the full costs.
When the burden is paid by the renter, there's no efficient market because renter has no choice in the broker and the owner doesn't care.