Not sure about "extinct" I think there are to many facets to the business to just figure out yourself, Finding the homes (sure Zillow etc help but how do you get in?), verifying information about the homes, contracts, inspections and the negotiations that occur there. Just like FSBO's are there really that many of them taking their home all the way through close? Even with Zillow and all the “new websites to assist them” I would like to see any stats on that.

I do believe the internet will streamline the industry a ton, No longer do most agents have to show 50 homes to see if they like any just point them to your website with IDX and they will tell you what they want to see. That alone cuts 25-50% of the time out, but as far as the expertise involved I think the web can only do so much. Think about this the travel and stock businesses where changed overnight when the web got to the level that people were comfortable with and served the customer fully. In real estate commissions although trending downwards actual commissions I believe are up on average due to the large move up in prices. I would much rather receive 6% of a 200k home (now) then 7% of a 100k home as that’s what prices and commissions where 10 years ago.