[Sodman]

Ok but you could replace the "Sending notifications about new listings in real time" duty by subscribing to zillow/redfin etc with specific filters... for free. It's hard to make the argument that that's worth 6% of a of half million dollar purchase? I agree it's a part time job to be a buyer in this market, but I don't think the buyer's agent really makes that job much easier in my experience.

"Answers a call at any time of the day" is definitely a great nice to have, but I suspect that puts your particular agent in the top 10% of the field. Most agents I have used will just let all phone calls go to voicemail and then text back or call you back hours or days later. YMMV a lot on this one.

[LapsangGuzzler]

Yeah, but a crucial part of getting those listings from him involved talking through the ways in which the house might have problems that weren’t disclosed, etc. Home listings are ads and it’s great to have someone who knows how to call BS when I don’t. There are so many tricks in home listings that can trip buyers up and that’s not an easily Googleable problem.

As far as agents you’ve worked with, that’s partially on you for choosing to work with bad people. I had several agents and I wasn’t afraid to drop them when I found the one that worked for me. Given that 87% of agents quit in the first 5 years, I definitely suspect my agent was top of his field, which is why he got my business.

[Sodman]

I think "bad people" is relative here though. The incentive structure is entirely misaligned. As mentioned elsewhere in the comments here, agents' best strategy for the highest possible payout is trying to close as many deals as possible, not taking the extra time to find each person the ideal perfect fit house (volume over value-add quality). It sounds like you found an agent who went the extra mile to get your business, which is great for you! But I suspect that there are other, less buyer-friendly agents out there out-earning your agent because they just drop the "difficult" customers and work with the easiest-to-close folks to get more overall commission.

Given that, my personal strategy when buying was to just do as much of the legwork as possible myself, rather than risk leaving due diligence to somebody whose financial incentives are not aligned with my own. My agent essentially ended up mostly relegated to docusign-forwarding duties.