Why are owners firing their agent?

I watched a successful real-estate agent with more than 130,000 YouTube subscribers explain why sellers are firing her and hiring less-expensive agents.
And I don’t think she’s a bad agent. She may be a very good agent.
What caught my attention was the assumption underneath almost everything she said.
Don’t skimp on your agent. Hire somebody who understands the market. Listen to the professional. Reduce the price when the market tells you to. Work with a reputable agent.
There’s some perfectly reasonable advice in there.
But it’s all coming from inside the same traditional real-estate model.
This is the real-estate business. This is how listings work. This is what it costs. This is what the agent does. This is how you sell the house.
And I think both sellers and agents should start questioning those assumptions.
Because the real-estate business is changing.
Brokerages are fighting over inventory. Portals are fighting over consumer traffic. Private listing strategies are growing. MLS organizations are changing policies. Technology keeps moving closer to the consumer.
Everybody understands something very important.
The inventory is the power.
But here’s where I think agents need to be careful.
The industry moving away from parts of the traditional model does not automatically mean the next model will be better for agents.
You could end up with larger brokerages controlling more inventory, portals controlling more consumers, private networks controlling more access, technology companies controlling more of the transaction, and the individual agent controlling less.
So when I hear someone essentially saying, “That’s just the real-estate business,” my question is: for how much longer?
This agent is already seeing one of the signals.
Sellers are firing her and hiring less-expensive agents.
Her conclusion is that they’re making a mistake. Don’t skimp on the agent. Hire the better professional.
And maybe she’s completely right that her expertise is worth more than the person they’re hiring.
But I think that answer stops one question too soon.
What if the seller isn’t simply asking, “Can I get the same agent cheaper?”
What if the seller is asking, “Why does selling my house require all of this in the first place?”
Those are very different questions.
The traditional real-estate business has bundled almost everything together.
Representation. Pricing. Photography. Marketing. MLS distribution. Showings. Negotiation. Transaction management.
Hire the agent and enter the system.
We’ve done it for so long that the process begins to feel like the product.
But the product isn’t the MLS. The product isn’t a commission. The product isn’t the machinery around the transaction.
There’s a house somebody wants to sell.
Start there.
What does this house actually need in order to sell?
Maybe the owner wants professional photography. Maybe they want video. Maybe they want pricing guidance. Maybe they want somebody handling negotiations.
Maybe they want full representation from the beginning. Maybe they don’t.
Maybe they want full representation later if they discover they need it.
Why shouldn’t they have that choice?
And this is where I think some agents may initially dislike the Rethink Open House model.
Because more seller choice can sound like less agent control.
There’s no point pretending that tension doesn’t exist.
An owner may look at Rethink Open House and immediately say, “That makes sense. Why shouldn’t I decide how much professional help I want?”
An agent who has spent years working inside the traditional model may look at exactly the same thing and say, “I don’t know if I like that.”
I understand why.
But I think agents should look one step further.
Because Rethink Open House isn’t built around making good professionals irrelevant.
It’s built around making the process more efficient.
And efficiency changes the economics.
A lot of traditional agents build their business around relatively few transactions carrying relatively large compensation.
Part of the reason is that each transaction can involve an enormous amount of activity.
Prospecting. Lead chasing. Repeated questions. Repeated showings. Driving buyers through houses they may never have been serious about.
Managing information that could have been presented clearly before anybody scheduled an appointment.
And then paying or participating in systems designed to reconnect professionals with consumers around their own listings.
That’s a lot of friction.
Rethink Open House starts with the First Showing Online.
Give buyers the photos. Give them the video. Give them the property information. Give them the price. Give them the people actually involved in selling the house.
Let somebody understand the property before they walk through the front door.
The purpose isn’t to eliminate physical showings. It’s to make physical showings matter more.
And when you start removing wasted activity, something important happens.
The professional can become more efficient.
Maybe the future isn’t an agent trying to make enough money from three or five transactions to support an entire year.
Maybe the future is a highly productive professional helping 20, 30 or 40 owners because the system no longer requires the same amount of wasted effort on every property.
That doesn’t mean Rethink Open House determines what that agent charges. It doesn’t.
Maybe an agent charges a percentage. Maybe they charge a different percentage. Maybe they charge a flat amount. Maybe different services are priced differently.
That’s between the professional and the client.
The bigger idea is this: when the process becomes more efficient, the professional has more flexibility in how they make money.
And I think that’s good for agents.
Your value shouldn’t come from how complicated the system makes your job.
Your value should come from the expertise you bring to the parts that actually require expertise.
Pricing. Negotiation. Strategy. Market knowledge. Communication. Representation.
Those things can still matter enormously.
But driving somebody through a house they could have ruled out online isn’t professional expertise.
Chasing a lead generated from your own listing isn’t professional expertise.
Supporting unnecessary layers around the transaction isn’t professional expertise.
That’s dead weight.
And real estate has accumulated a lot of it.
The future may very well have fewer real-estate professionals handling more transactions.
That doesn’t necessarily mean those professionals work more.
A better model should allow them to work more efficiently.
That’s a different future from simply cutting commissions and asking agents to do the same job for less money.
I don’t think that’s sustainable.
The answer isn’t a cheaper agent doing the same inefficient job.
The answer is a more efficient professional working in a better model.
And that’s where this agent has a choice.
She doesn’t need to disappear.
Her knowledge may be extremely valuable. Her experience may be extremely valuable. Her audience, reputation and relationships may be extremely valuable.
But she may need to rethink what business she’s actually in.
Because if she keeps defining her value according to the traditional structure while the structure itself changes, somebody else may decide what her role is worth.
A brokerage. A portal. A technology company. A private network. Somebody who controls the inventory or controls access to the consumer.
Rethink Open House takes a different direction.
The seller created the inventory.
The seller should have meaningful choices about how that inventory is marketed and what professional services they purchase.
The professional should control their brand. The professional should remain directly connected to the client and the listing.
The buyer should be able to experience the property without unnecessary interference.
And every layer between those people should have to justify why it’s there.
That’s why I believe the model can be better for buyers, better for sellers and better for agents.
Some sellers may understand that before agents do.
I think that’s unavoidable.
Established agents already have businesses built around the current system.
Relationships. Referral networks. Prospecting systems. MLS access.
They have reasons to protect what already works for them.
The owner has a different perspective.
It’s their house. It’s their money. They created the inventory.
They’re much more likely to ask: What do I actually need? What is this costing me? Who is getting paid? Why are they getting paid? Can this be simpler?
That’s why owners may ultimately drive this change.
They may be the ones who tell their agents: I want Rethink Open House.
And the agents who understand the opportunity won’t fight that seller.
They’ll help them. They’ll become more efficient. They’ll build relationships earlier. They’ll provide the services that actually create value.
And they’ll participate in more transactions without necessarily creating more work.
That’s a much stronger future for the professional than simply protecting the old model until somebody else replaces it.
The traditional model isn’t disappearing tomorrow.
The MLS still has the inventory. That’s its power.
But inventory moved once before. It can move again.
And if sellers begin asking for a better model, professionals will have a choice.
Fight the change. Or use it.
Rethink Open House is built around one objective.
Sell the house.
More money in your pocket. Less people in your house.
More efficiency for the professionals who help make it happen.
The MLS has the inventory. Rethink Open House has the better model.

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