my first guess is that most people that complain that realtor's fees are too high aren't realtors.
my second guess is that most people don't know how much realtor's actually earn.
it's kind of like complaining about the cost of a good lawyer (and trust me, it is way more expensive to pay less for a cheap lawyer).
average house prices in edmonton are probably 400k and average commissions probably $12k? both the selling and the listing broker will split that so 6k each. about 20% of that will go the brokerage firm so you're down to 4.8k. any reasonable broker is probably spending another 20% on signage, licensing, advertising, fees (including mls fees so you're down to 3.6k.
at current volumes, edmonton will sells in the range of 15,000 homes this year and has 3,800 realtors so, keeping with averages, that's 4 homes per realtor with a selling side and a listing side so lets use 8. 8 times 3.6k is a gross annual salary of 28,800 per year with no benefits or pension.
granted, the good realtors will do better than that and the poor ones - or the part time ones - will starve to death but even then, a good realtor only has to see your property sell for an additional 3% to more than cover 100% of the fees and the expenses they cover, never mind having providing value legal and valuation and lending expertise etc. don't forget that everything that isn't being paid for out of the realtor's fees (including time at open houses and showings and attending to meetings with lawyers and lenders) needs to paid for or done by the selling owner.