system
A chat on subreddit /r/wallstreetbets
human
People like new. So as long as your friend builds nice houses he can sell on his own.
gpt
It’s an “in network.”

If you don’t use a realtor that’s “in the network” as your selling agent then buying agents won’t show prospective buyers your property. This artificially deflates demand for your property since most buyers are going through an agent. Law of Supply and Demand says if the demand goes down while the supply (1 house) remains the same the price goes down, even if it’s done artificially. The exclusion of this supply from the “in network” market also causes that not to be added to the supply “in network”, which causes prices for “in network” houses to go up too. It’s a pretty devious play on the market that benefits agents and sellers.

The article says the seller pays, but really the buyer is the one giving over the funds.

It’s even worse because most of the people skipping a buying agent (which is your new market) are doing it to save on the commission fee. If they care about the commission fee enough to avoid an agent they are likely to be looking to minimize what they want to pay and so their price point is lower than normal.