So the National Association of Realtors lost their lawsuit for "conspiring to artificially inflate commissions for home sales."
LINK.
I read other articles saying that the US is the outlier in how real estate agents are paid. What's the commission structure like in other countries? Do buyers agents get a fee too, or just the seller's agent? It would be great if we didn't have to also pay the buyer's commission, but I don't see that happening. I have read that realtors will shun houses were the buyer's commission is not guaranteed.
I have only purchased two houses in my life and I can say that the buyer's agents were way overpaid for what they did. On the first house we bought, we found an agent at an open house and signed with him to visit some other homes. There was nothing we liked, but we found a house on our own. He provided one of his approved inspectors that overlooked any deal breaking issues, handled the paperwork, and got his 3% commission doing 4 hours of work.
When we sold the house, our agent was fantastic and deserved her 3%, but they buyer's agent messed up and presented a foundation estimate as a completed repair. I caught that a week before closing, I am not sure what he did to make things right, but we sale went through.