I was just asked to proof a very agressive manifesto penned by a mortgage broker who was attacking the, in his words, “outrageous” commissions Realtors make when helping people buy and sell a home.  It made me wonder why the LO was so angry with Realtors in general. 

Any Realtor who reads the article in its current form will take a direct attack back onto the author, attacking the structure of loan origination fees and the high, predatory, egregious YSPs LOs earned during the bubble run up. 
 
When someone initiates a direct attack,  most people want to steer clear, especially if the way they personally earn a living doesn’t match the stance of the article. For example, a Realtor who may agree that Realtor commission structures could be changed might not want to come out publicly on this side because he/she needs to keep earning a living under that commission structure to feed his/her own family!  A loan originator agreeing that Realtor commissions ought to change may not want to publicly agree because he/she might have many Realtors who refer him/her business on a regular basis.
 
Here’s my honest opinion, FWIW.
 
Everyone has been pointing the finger at everyone else, blaming them for the meltdown.  A direct attack by loan originators on Realtor comissions takes all the anger and points it at the Realtors and their commission thereby relieving the mortgage loan originator of any culpability.
 
In psychology we call this projection. LOs (all the time, in my classroom) tend to project their own issues onto anyone else nearby:  The banks, the wholesale lenders, the Realtors, the builders, the regulators, the greedy wall street investors, and so forth: 
“It was all their fault!”  Projecting outward keeps our own ego intact, so that we don’t have to personally look within (collectively speaking, as an entire nationwide group of LOs) and examine if we actually could have done something as a group, nationwide, to have stopped the mess/meltdown.
 
There are small pockets of people scattered around nationwide who want to raise the bar in the real estate industry and there are folks who want to or already do offer different real estate commission structures and they’re fighting an uphill battle but they are fighting the good fight.
 
I recommend starting from scratch and take a different stance.  Approach the idea of real estate commissions as if you were going to give advice to a young, first time homebuyer who knows nothing about lending.  Let go of the anger because we wouldn’t use an angry tone with a first time homebuyer. Instead, pretend like you’re teaching a class and the person reading your essay is a student.  Teach a new homebuyer how to succesfully negotiate a lower real estate commission. 
 
Now you’re educating and giving some valuable information back to the world.  Now the tone will be less agressive and more about teaching consumers to be assertive (slight but important difference) when hiring real estate agents.
 
As time moves on, LOs will become less angry and will start accepting that industry changes can and do happen but they happen in a much slower way than we’d like.

And then when you’re all done, consider that the same advice you’re giving homebuyers about negotiating Realtor commission, that same person could use your advice to negotiate a lower loan originator commission.  Now how motivated are you to change the world?