Dismay

Nothing can motivate someone as much as seeing incompetence impact an individual on a personal level.  After having just listed our family home and seeing wave after wave of potential buyers and their realtors come swarming along, something has become very evident: real estate sharks are out in droves and so are guppies.  

That first week on the market we were slated to have our open house.  Incompetence arose when our realtor blew it off and pushed it to the following week because she had to go shopping for a dress.  Apparently that is a weekend-long affair.  Who knew?  Guppy.
The first realtor who calls to schedule a showing doesn't even bother showing up or calling to cancel.  The second scheduled shows up asking where the fireplace is (there isn't one) and how many beds/baths we have.  Guppies.
Week two rolls around and I go online the day before to see what other open houses are occurring around us.  Shockingly, I dont even see our property listed anywhere.  Nothing on realtor.com, zillow, trulia.  As far as the world is concerned, nothing is scheduled.  We get in contact with the realtor and she finally posts it roughly fourteen hours before the open house.  Hooray?  
The day of the event, the only actual occurrence that stuck with me was from one of the realtors who comes sauntering up the driveway half an hour after we have scheduled the end of the open house.  We oblige and let him in and show him around.  He waltzes from room to room with our realtor in tow, listing off this and that.  They finally come to the end of the tour and he informs us that he is looking at the property on behalf of an investor and he asks one question.  "When will you guys be reducing your price?"  Guppy shark?
Our first offer comes a day after the open house in the form of an all cash offer - an offer of 40% of what we are asking.  Shark.
I sit there at the end of the day asking myself how in the world these people maintain regular employment.  It bewilders me so much so that even with my most basic knowledge and know- how I can find out what comparable properties are going for in the area.  I know what has sold, is for sale, what condition they are in, how long they have been vacant, how many bedrooms and bathrooms they have.  I know all these very basic things and I'm not even working in their field.
Why not?  Why not wade into a field where the slightest modicum of knowledge can put you miles ahead of the rest of the floundering masses?

The only real question seems to be which entry point to choose.