1 Depends, I guess. We have a friend who's a realtor. She's done wonderful work for us. Conversely, we had a neighbor in our old North Minneapolis neighborhood who was also a realtor, and called us up, whining bitterly, when we didn't use her to list our house. I suppose they're like contractors. There are good ones, but they're hidden in a cloud of unscrupulous fuckheads.

2 To paraphrase the old saying, "99% of realtors give the rest a bad name". If you find a good one, it's heaven. Otherwise it's hell.

3 When you're buying, use one that specializes in the EXACT area you're looking in. Twenty miles away won't cut it. You need one who knows the peculiarities of the neighborhood. Also, you're the boss. I wanted to make an offer on a house and agent refused to do it. He said it was too low, way too low and it was insulting to the asking price. I told him,"Make the offer or I will." He made the offer and they accepted. The moron could have cost me a lot of money. When you're selling, they are basically worthless. 10k is huge to you, but in his commission there's not much difference. They have no incentive to get you're price and they're looking to turn houses. I wish I brought a lawyer to closing. I had some questions and the RE agent was clueless. Since you're hemoraging money at that point, might as well pay for an hour of a lawyers time. You might need one and not even know it.