It's still madness out there

I settled a sale today where the real estate commission was 32.8 times higher than my legal fee. Yep, 32.8 times.

The property:
• was brand new
• sold within 21 days
• wasn’t complex
• practically sold itself

Somewhere along the way, the market decided that opening homes and uploading listings deserved exponentially more compensation than the professionals carrying the legal responsibility for the transaction.

And lawyers just accepted it.

Why?

Why has the legal profession completely surrendered the commercial side of residential property transactions to an industry charging enormous commissions for increasingly commoditised work?

Consumers are starting to notice the disconnect.

The traditional real estate commission model made sense when agents controlled access to listings, buyers and information.

That world no longer exists.

Most buyers now find properties online within minutes. Marketing is automated. Photography is outsourced. Listing platforms do the heavy lifting.

Yet commission structures still behave like it’s 1995.

Lawyers should be paying very close attention to this shift, because I don’t think consumers will tolerate the status quo forever.