Realtors, are your days numbered?

I've seen a lot of posts during past weeks about old and new automated real estate services and how they affect real estate agents, their business and the whole industry. Very interesting. Seams like a lot of people jealous of real estate agents having possibility of making good money with "less work" invested. Well, I personally don't think so. I'm not an agent, but I'm working with them and as in any business there are people that providing outstanding services, working their butts off 24/7 and making their clients happy as well as opposite. There is an interesting post on NY Times Real Estate Blog which quotes Jon Strum's (L.A. r.e. agent) Manifesto for the Future and creates quite a buzz on real estate blogs. I found it very interesting and a little bit sad - read the comments of the post. Real Estate industry is very attractive to many people and businesses today. Everyone is trying to get a piece of the pie including professionals and ..others. I think heavy competition will bring up the quality services as well as make them well worth the money. Those that can't compete, probably will have to save some and go to college... There are always will be businesses that provide "some" services and will help you to do "some" research, but when you realize you're not able to "do it yourself" - you'll hire a professional.