There was a show on HGTV years ago (Buy this House, I think?) whose opening began with a scary-looking man in a black turtleneck standing on the roof of a house.
But all the people on the show were delusional. It was hilarious. Nearly all the seriously bad results were from people overpricing their homes at the outset.
It seems to me in theory that if the real estate agent does their job correctly, they may get you more for your home than you might have on your own and if that’s more than six percent, they’ve earned that commission.
I rather suspect my mom’s house dropped significantly in value over three weeks. I forget the details, but the news articles led us to think that, and the realtor’s suddenly-cautious email supported that. We thought she was trying to prepare us to drop the price.
Then someone who hadn’t gotten the memo offered what we’d thought it had been worth, and we quickly accepted their offer. The rest of the transaction proceeded as smoothly as these things ever do. And the realtor was incredibly helpful, because of course she really wanted that deal to go through.
But yeah, real estate agents are in it for themselves, and can’t be trusted if their interests are significantly different from yours.