No, i am not in the real estate industry. I just take an interest in the real estate market, and think that people do have a choice to sell by themself or to use the service of real estate agents. The price of everything has gone up, but that's just the way things are. For those that want to deal with the hassle of selling their house on their own, then good luck to you. I'd rather have my evenings and weekends free and not be on call 24/7. I think that the goverment needs to give up thier outrageous charges before you expect hard working indiviuals to take a cut in pay or commission.

What is that Robert Peden guy gripping about ! 5% commission is still 5% whether it's the 1970's or today. Just because housing prices are ridiculously high doesn't mean realtors commissions should have to change. Costs that realtors incur have all increased as well. The 5% commission is split so an agent really only gets 2.5%. Tihnk about this:
A house sells for $200,000. There's a listing agent and selling agent.
5% commission is $10,000. $5000 for each agent.
Now say the house doesn't sell for 4 weeks. Say there's 2 open houses held. Advertising for the open houses, etc, etc. Driving expenses to show the home to perspective clients.

The agent ends up pocketing somewhere around $3000 after all of their out of pocket expenses for a month worth of work.

Doesn't really seem unreasonable now does it?!?!

The ones to harrass and complain about is MPAC and CMHC. The land transfer taxes, and the CMHC taxes are the biggest rip offs when selling/buying a home.