[supafamous]

According to the commission calculator the commission on a $1.5m sale is $44k with $19.4k going to the buying agent and $22.6k (the rest is GST). I'd be really curious how that actually breaks down and how much does the agent pocket after expenses - I'd guess they get about half of it but I could be way off.

If it's half then I'd say on the buying side that my agent delivered enough value to me that her cut was worth it (even if the total amount isn't) - we looked at a tonne of houses with her over a 9 month period. On the selling side I would say my agent helped us sell the house for $80-100k more than we expected so money well spent (her cut at least) - the house was really well presented, she negotiated better terms for us (out of 9 offers), and provided really good advice along the way.

It's hard, the total amount is totally ridiculous but if I assume my agent only ends up pocketing half of her cut then it doesn't sound THAT unreasonable.