> On the sell side in particular, that commission should be irrelevant if the listing agent was doing their job, IE: marketing your property in a way to get you a top dollar return.

A vendor agent’s financial incentive is to sell as quickly as possible, and spend as little time as possible on the sale. Successful vendor agents are very good at convincing vendors that they should sell, quickly. They have a variety of strategies, and vendors are easily convinced they got good value, since successful agents are good at marketing a narrative (and the vendor wants to believe they got a good deal).

Let’s say a successful agent sells 50 houses as quickly as possible. Another more honest agent works to get the best price, which takes them twice the time, so the honest agent only sell 25 houses. The commissions from selling 25 houses nets the honest agent approximately half the profit compared to the successful agent selling 50 houses at lower prices.

Financial incentives really do influence most agents, even if they are not so aware of how they have been influenced by other agents to sell quickly.