Steve wrote:

Would we still need a million realtors then? That may be the real
issue in this debate.

One good thing about the large quantity of realtors is that it is
creating a lot of downward pressure on commissions. You can sell a
million dollar house for around $10,000 in commission now, where as in
the past some people paid as much as 6%, and the average was somewhere
between 4% and 5%.

There is one real estate company in Silicon Valley that has taken out
these bizarre advertisements, claiming that they get more money for your
house than discount real estate companies, and the difference is more
than what you save in commission from a lower cost real estate company.
However their data is highly flawed, and they actually admit as much in
the fine print, which I assume that they hope no one reads.