News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now. Parent comment

Re:Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now by AlexandrB on Friday January 21, 2022 @11:54AM (#30026195)
> So, if the agent can manage to move your house for $2 million rather than $1 million, why shouldn't they get a larger reward?

Indeed, for the seller this makes sense and the agent's and seller's incentives are aligned. But there's a nasty externality created where real estate agents contribute to a constant upward pressure on housing prices. This eventually helps make housing unaffordable.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Former Labor Secretary Found What Work Is Like Now by bena on Friday January 21, 2022 @03:09PM (#30029295)
Selling agents are incentivized downward, because in reality, agents are incentivized to churn.

Agent commission is just shy of 6%. And that's for both the selling and buying agent. So they each get around 3%. For all the work you could be doing maximizing a house's selling price to get another $1k or $2k, you could be closing another house and getting another $10k.

[ Parent | on HN ]