"Buyer, Seller and Agent and NOTHING ELSE", you say !   C'mon Richie, not every transaction since the beginning of time was a CASH PURCHASE !

There have always been and there will always be "Lenders".   Whether a Bank, family money or hard money loans; someone always had to offer some sort of financial value in exchange for a property.   I think Lenders play a major role in the real estate industry and offer GREAT VALUE !

I was going to mention "lender" - but see that DEANNA EARLY --( NMLS #268590 )-- beat me to it!

Richie Alan Naggar - there are two oldest professions in the world.

One of them is Real Estate Agents. And it will remain there forever, others can try their hand at it - and join the community.

"If they would just use their powers for good."
They have PHDs in hand-pocket-sticking.

Seems every time you turn around there is another company trying to provide a service that we didn't know we needed! :-)

Richie Alan Naggar you have some really good answers. 

      Ronald Gombach said it best.  ZTR and MLS Fiefdoms are leading the agents, instead of the other way around.

Richie,

I don't think they offer value other than they purport to be the source of all the real estate info.  Agents are convinced that they can give leads to them and market better than they can, and its "free" to you.  But is it when they sell your listing to someone who puts their mug shot on it and gets the lead?  Something is very crazy in this picture.  A

People are getting into it because the market is hot but 85% will not be in it in 5 years again.

We are not better off for having so many fingers in our pies.

We've always had title, escrow, lenders and inspectors... but I think I see where you're going.  No ".coms" in the past.  I think we can be both better off and not because of it.  It makes the listing agent's job of marketing easier, but it seems to be killing off the buyers agents as I've been seeing an upward trend of people doing their own research and approaching listing agents to see only their listing.

Some I value and some I don't. I think that there isn't much hope for limiting the reach of many of these companies. They are probably here to stay.

Sharp vendors will take advantage of the opportunities. 

we are in much better shape with providing good service to clients because of other parties being involved in the process.... those other parties will usually keep you butt out of court....

NONE, they hamper more than help. SOme have bad info, others too much and most buyers and sellers do not know what to do with it. Others still take leads from our listings and want to sell them back to us. That is of no value for sure

If financing is necessary, a critical part!

Some of them do provide some value but others are waste of our money.

Richie, I know what you mean!

None that I know of

Different agents need different help in their business. Some swear by "leads" because they can sit at their computer and just make calls reactively. Others are proactive, and can go out there and find the business for themselves. In between you have the "will get you on first page of Google" to reworking your website (once again), to doing your social media for you--a whole industry that feeds off agents. Some work, some don't. Nature of the beast.

I'm a newer agent, but definitely fell into the lead generation trap.. Often think before all these 3rd parties real estate may have been more enjoyable.  Value? Money trap! 

All just trying to get a piece of the pie, some are worth it, others are just parasites.

3rd parties are little to no value, unless a relative of a B or S and expect no compensation.

There are so many of these and have been for years. I think of all the ones that have come and gone and today's will likely be replaced with something new and innovative for the moment, too. Everyone tries to get a piece of the pie and agnts bite..

It depends.