- Bottled water that cost more per gallon than refined gasoline.

- Despicable corporate executives with salaries and perks and grandiose lifestyles earned from over priced products.

- Athletes

Few in the public complain about their out of pocket contribution because somehow they believe in the value.

Take a UFC champion that beats people up for a living. Yet millions forked over $40.00 for the Paper View fight two weeks ago. Would the public pay that see me debate one of them? I doubt it. No value there.

That's how I see it in real estate. Few prove value because they hide it behind cheap websites, inane blogs, lack of listings, no pictures or crappy ones, horrible marketing and no leadership.

Realtors that provide something different — something great —something professional — you'd be hard pressed to find a customer of theirs who doesn't swear by they or say their fee was well worth it.

I'm one of those people. I own a home here in CA – an investment – that I really want to sell. But I won't list because I have yet to locate one agent that actually delivers a 6% service. But if I could find someone who could price it right, not blow smoke up my ass, market it right and get that puppy sold in 60 days, I'd gladly write a 6% check.

The arrogance and sense of entitlement this industry has towards such an outlandish fee structure is flat-out unethical, and flies in the face of how almost every other service industry works and is valued. More and more Americans are finally realizing this, they're disgusted by it, and are just plain FED UP with the hollow justifications. The writing is on the wall– it is PAST time for real estate to aggressively move to a rational, fair model.

So let's quit trying to find ways to somehow defend that the everyday sale of a 1M house is worth the same as 8 years of private education for a child, or almost TWICE the per capita ANNUAL INCOME in the USA!!

As for value, the sad thing as we see it is that there is great value sitting there that is by our measure totally untapped by everyone.

Every time I read or see a story about a discount brokerage, there is a quote from a consumer saying "I can walk people through my house." That should be a red flag to real estate professionals and Associations that consumers don't understand the real estate sales process beyond holding open houses.

Unfortunately too few agents can illustrate their own value. Associations have historically focused on marketing ethics, a strategy that missed the biggest threat to the income of their members and failed to resonate with consumers.

Everyone says they have ethics. Learn to differentiate on value or you will end up having to differentiate on price until you reach the point where you become little more than a commodity with a fixed price, like the 1% crowd.