I find it amusing that the person who brought up the word "middleman" is implicitly pointing at big internet companies, and here you are telling me Facebook or WhatsApp are not middleman.
I find it amusing that the person who brought up the word "middleman" is implicitly pointing at big internet companies, and here you are telling me Facebook or WhatsApp are not middleman.
It is a very broad categorization to call anyone in-between a middleman. By that logic, these are all middleman because I use their service to sell a house:
1) My ISP because I use internet through them
2) My phone service provider, because I make calls via their network
3) My car manufacturer / leasing because I pay a monthly fee to go visit the listing
But, by my perhaps opinionated definition, none of the above should be classified as active middlemen because they don't interfere with my transaction w.r.t the listing. Facebook and WhatsApp are not active middlemen. They are simply just a listing service. I could replace them with say, Craigslist or even a Google sites web page and I would still be fine. The worst that could happen is I might be asked to pay a small fixed fee like $20 for a listing/webpage. The service provider (generally) doesn't care what the listing is about. That's why it's passive.
Real estate agents are active middlemen. They in most cases prevent the transaction altogether if you don't use them. They are not asking a fixed fee, they are asking for a percentage of the transaction - when the value they add doesn't compound with the transaction amount. That's why.
I think the point is to reduce the amount of middleman.
But why? More competing middle men is better than fewer.
The idea is fewer LAYERS of middle men - not less middle men competing for your business.
I.e. get rid of the realtors - don’t get rid of the house photographers, listings sites, and staging companies. Remove a layer between you and a sale, don’t reduce the number of photographers competing to take photos of your home for sale.
Well, you should be free to bypass layers, when you want to. But sometimes they can be useful, and people should be allowed to add layers.
Eg a concierge is purely a middle man between you and various restaurants and venues. Many people find them useful.
If the concierge is outsourcing some of the calls and research she has to make to some assistant in the Philippines, that should be fair game.
I do not disagree. You are free to use a realtor, and/or Facebook, and/or whatever.