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chubottoday at 12:19 AM1 replyview on HN

I have definitely experienced the sycophancy ... and LLMs have sometimes repeating talking points from real estate agents, like "you the buyer doesn't pay for an agent; the seller pays".

I correct it, and it says "sorry you're right, I was repeating a talking point from an interested party"

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BUT actually a crazy thing is that -- with simple honest questions as prompts -- I found that Claude is able to explain the 2024 National Association of Realtors settlement better than anyone I know

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnett_v._National_Associatio...

I have multiple family members with Ph.D.s, and friends in relatively high level management, who have managed both money and dozens of people

Yet they somehow don't agree that there was collusion between buyers' and sellers' agents? They weren't aware it happened, and they also don't seem particularly interested in talking about the settlement

I feel like I am taking crazy pills when talking to people I know

Has anyone else experienced this?

Whenever I talk to agents in person, I am also flabberghasted by the naked self-interest and self-dealing. (I'm on the east coast of the US btw)

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Specifically, based on my in-person conversations with people I have known for decades, they don't see anything odd about this kind of thing, and basically take it at face value.

NAR Settlement Scripts for REALTORS to Explain to Clients

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE-ESZv0dBo&list=TLPQMjQxMTI...

https://www.nar.realtor/the-facts/nar-settlement-faqs'

They might even say say something like "you don't pay; the seller pays". However Claude can explain the incentives very clearly, with examples


Replies

titanomachytoday at 1:01 AM

Most people conduct very few real estate transactions in their life, so maybe they just don’t care enough to remember stuff like this.