Those sellers that have some deep seated psychological hatred of the real estate brokerage industry will go to crazed extremes and cost themselves loads of money to avoid brokers.  

But, that being said, there are the numbers on paper and then there's the psychological component.... the human behavior component. 

Some of this is a psychological argument, too - I'm not someone that can put a bunch of money in an index fund or stocks that are fully liquid and keep myself from messing around with it when I shouldn't.

Consumer psychology 101. 

I have not fallen for this but have been to a couple of "free" seminars, mostly for entertainment value and a study of human psychology.

Psychology, risk tolerance and self-discipline are involved. 

Since we're ten pages into this thread it may be safe to show a little book-learning and mention cross-cultural psychology and Geert Hofstede.

The hardest part of getting started for me was getting over the psychological aspect/fear and crossing the starting line. 

It's sad but it's human nature - read a few books on human evolution and psychology.

Tap into human psychology by paying with cash and tracking every single dollar spent.