The new first rule of home buying: fire your realtor

Tech Insider
A person handing themselves a house and keys
The best part of (briefly) having an agent was realizing just how much I had already figured out on my own.

Sebastian König for BI

Last summer, when I told my then-girlfriend that I had just hired a real-estate agent to help me buy an apartment, her response annoyed me: "Sounds like a scam."

A real-estate agent accidentally burned down a $2 million home ahead of an open house

Tech Insider
A stock photo shows a
A stock photo shows a "Fire Line Do Not Cross" sign in front of a destroyed property.

carrollphoto/Getty Images

The number of home sales per real estate agent is at its lowest level in over a decade

Tech Insider
The number of home sales per real estate agent is at its lowest level in decades
The number of home sales per real estate agent is at its lowest level in decades.

C.J. Burton/Getty Images

The Florida city with cheaper homes and fun perks luring residents from Miami and New York

Tech Insider
Orlando, Florida.
Orlando, Florida.

Songquan Deng/Shutterstock

I'm a widow who sold everything to move from Texas to Lake Como. I decided long ago that I wouldn't let fear dictate my life.

Tech Insider
a woman walking down a street in Italy
Judy Walling moved to Como in September.

Courtesy of Judy Walling

A new tiny-home community near San Antonio is raising eyebrows for marketing pint-sized houses for over $140,000

Tech Insider
The Elm Trails tiny home community is near San Antonio, Texas.
The Elm Trails tiny home community is near San Antonio, Texas.

Billy Rojo/TikTok

A realtor says a $660 apartment listing asking tenants to share a bed proves how 'grim' the affordable housing crisis is

Tech Insider
An unmade queen-sized bed.
The realtor came across a listing for a shared bed on Facebook Marketplace.

owngarden/Getty Images

Real-estate agents may be forced to charge home buyers less, thanks to a new $1.8 billion verdict

Tech Insider : Economy, Economy
A judge's gavel and a house.
Beyond the eye-popping damages, a recent verdict against the National Association of Realtors and the country's biggest brokerages could also fundamentally change how we buy and sell homes.

Chelsea Jia Feng/Insider

On Tuesday afternoon at a courthouse in Kansas City, Missouri, the collective nightmare of the real-estate industry became reality.

Buying a home has become way too complicated

Tech Insider : Economy
Among a tangle of jungle plants and vines, a lane of houses appears, with eager real estate agents stand in front of the doorways. And the lane narrows, the horizons depicts the houses fragmenting, a lone orange house surviving in the large expanse of a starry night sky.
Two decades after companies like Zillow and Trulia revolutionized home search, the rest of the process remains pretty much the same.
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