Realtor

They don't sell used cars. They don't sell used companies. They sell used homes. Well, mostly used homes. New homes comprise only a small percentage of the total homes sold in the world. The realtor is the generally nice-looking, well-dressed, lawschool-wannabe, who comes a-knockin' at your door, asking for 5% to sell your home. If they get the listing, that's more than half the battle. Yes, they still have to sell your home, but they effectively have now a monopoly on the selling of your home. Offers will come. And eventually, they'll drive you to drop your price enough so that they can collect their commiss...er, um, so that they can properly service you, the customer, and let you move on to your retirement community in low-tax-Florida.

Realtors work for brokerages. The agent is the realtor, the one doing the line work. The brokerage takes a piece of all action on the home sales line, such that a typical agent in a gross transaction of 5% might get 2.5% for being the listing agent, but a third of that 2.5% won't be kept by the agent. Instead, 1/3 will go to the brokerage under whose license she is operating. So that's 1.5% of a sales price of...$300k? $400k? Sell a home a month and it beats pouring lattes.