When I was a kid, I inherited 1/7th of my grandparents' house (my dad's share, since he'd died). We sold out to my aunt. I needed to get my signature of the sales contract signed, and a real estate broker who lived down the street was a notary. When I went to his office to get the contract notarized, he was feeding me some bull**** about how we should get a real estate broker to handle the deal. So, I learned at a very early age how crooked and useless real estate agents and brokers can be.

The Interwebs and put a real hurting on the real estate sales business. It's made it possible to sell a house without them (e.g. FSBO.com, ForSaleByOwner.com) or with a very small commission (e.g. Redfin.com).

My last real estate was land purchase out of state. With those sales websites, Google Maps, Google Earth (satellite imagery), Google Street View, and various city and county websites (run by the property appraiser) I could get a good idea if the lot would work for me or not.