In VHCOL markets, it seems neither sellers nor buyers want agents

I was reading this other thread on Reddit yesterday related to the NAR settlement (don’t have the link) where one of the people replying was a seller who said that he lives in a VHCOL market that is a sellers market, and that a potential listing agent that him and his wife were interviewing showed up in a $300,000 Porsche, a diamond ring that was at least $1000, and a Fendi laptop bag that was $3000. He said that that listing agent was convincing them to list at a much lower price than they would’ve liked to. He felt this was a disservice to him because the agent would basically be collecting $65,000 worth of commissions and the house would probably sell in no more than two weeks. So, for doing a couple of hours of work, she would be getting a fat paycheck for a property that basically sells itself. He mused that he would like to list it for higher, but the agent probably felt that it would not sell as quickly and the difference in commission to her based on the percentage wouldn’t be more than a few thousand dollars, and so she was prioritizing volume, and moving that house quickly instead of prioritizing the “right price“. He also seethed at the idea of having to pay the buyers agent a commission as well for essentially negotiating against him. Over on the buyer’s side, people like myself who also live in a VHCOL area feel that even our own buyer’s agents are negotiating against us and they instead want the price to be a lot higher so that their commission also goes up. And aside from opening a few doors, pointing out some upgrades, and inserting standard terms into the real estate purchase agreement, that they don’t do much. So if buyers don’t want agents and sellers don’t want agents, then something tells me that after this NAR settlement is done, there’s going to be a massive disruption. I predict: 1) A rise in the usage of Zillow and Redfin with Matterport 3D tours built in 2) More flat fee brokers 3) Another tech company, or perhaps Zillow and redfin themselves becoming a brokerage, and having tech enabled contracting functionality for a flat fee. Buyers would use this platform to upload their preapprovals and identity documents so that sellers can screen them, and flat fee brokers working for this tech company simply coordinate showings or door opening times with the sellers.

Regardless of what happens, disruption through tech is going to be the future.