“you cant pay bills with a great feeling. Please respond with your opinion”
In my opinion, this should not be a “job” it should be something you do for people you know. And the truth is, if you’re only acting as a broker between 2 parties you don’t know, you should charge (and they should pay) as much as the market will support.
Just don’t call me. I / my wife will not have spent the last 40+ years of putting down roots and playing it straight to have to resort to relying on a broker, nor will my kids have spent the last 20+ years being good kids to be at the mercy of a warped system. If after all the work we have put into getting where we are, the only calls I get are from proffessional power brokers, then I / my kids have failed. So charging $$$$ to set us up with some unsuspecting mechutonim, without knowing anything about us is wrong and misleading.
OTOH, if you know us, and know the other side, and both are straight-forward people to work with, the shadchan’s efforts are minimal, so mega bucks is uncalled for.
But regardless of the work involved, please keep in mind, we are talking about kids whose potential may be great, but still nowhere near proven. Why should they command a price tag like that?
I may not be able to change the system, but I sure don’t need to abide by it.