Realtors freely enter into commission-only contracts knowing that they will have to invest time, gas, & resources and won't get paid until the house sells. If it's so awful and unfair of prospective buyers to abuse their time like that, why don't Realtors just change their compensation structure to an hourly rate (hint: they make more money for less work with the current system)?

And to continue your (bad) analogy, should I be required to pay an entry fee every time I step into a store? After all, the store owner has to pay for lights & heat and employee wages. According to your way of thinking, if I go to a store and look at something but don't buy, I'm wasting those people's valuable time. Maybe they should have me sign a contract before I am allowed into the store?

Also, Realtors love to throw out "But what if something goes wrong?" scare tactics like you used in your post, but since we are speaking the truth here, let's all admit that most sales don't require arbitration, and for those that do, most people would be better-served by a real-estate attorney.

I'm not saying that Realtors are bad people, but they are vastly overpaid for what they do, and I'm glad that other options are becoming more viable, despite the Realtors' attempts to defend their racket.