Hah we contacted a realtor about the house we ended up buying on Whidbey. We were in Washington DC on a family trip at the time, while we were still living in VA, I think maybe in Dec 2019. Just wanted to know more info. Realtor was like, "put an offer in now". We didn't quite do that, but we found a friend local to the house to have a look and photo/video record it for us the next day. And then we put in an offer. Laughably, we offered below asking. I think what we got was asking, but with a seller credit towards closing costs. But in hindsight, she was 100% right. This house wouldn't have sat for more than 5 days on the market. And it is amazing that they accepted our eventual offer at all. They allowed a home inspection too. I remember watching the ridiculous spectacle of realtor showings of our neighbors houses in 2020-2021, you'd count a new car/family every 30 mins, and they sold after a bidding war in like 2 days. Spoiler alert, only old boomers with cash won. So we now have only old people in our neighborhood.
Anyway, good to know. I hadn't thought about becoming a real estate agent, but now I will never think of it. But I never thought of it because it has always sounded like a lot of hours spent hustling for nothing.