Real-estate agents are going extinct just like travel agents did

[Stinky The Clown]

14. We've bought and sold quite a few properties, some as recently as 2023.

Our realtor did a lot of work for us, saving us time and effort to say nothing of steering us away from mistakes.

To be sure, given today's resources, there is little they did we could not have done on our own. But would I want to order credit and criminal background checks? From who? How do I interpret what I learn? In more than twenty years of having two or three rentals we have never had a tenant issue.

Our properties have all been in the best neighborhoods appropriate to the nature of the specific properties. For us that means college educated young singles and DINKs of both races. In the process of renting, we were able to pass on applicants that didn't meet our realtor's and our criteria.

Our realtor did open houses, paid for advertising, and chatted with (interviewed) interested people prior to their applications. Could we have done this? Of course we could. But let's be honest, we'd be amateurs just fumbling along.

When buying, we had him choose the title and settlement companies. We had no issues. When selling, the buyer chose them and believe me there are flakes out there. Or realtor kept us safe.

For all these and other reasons, we find value in realtors.

What we're reasonably good at is maintaining properties and bringing them up to market ready conditions. That's what we did, but even, in consultation with our realtor.

We've had four realtors over the years.