I know a lot of people who don’t vote. Not because they’re lazy, but because they’re philosophically opposed to the whole business. For my own part, I vote for just about the same reason I go to Mass, and about as often. Since 1848 or so, the main objective of government seems to me to have been universal penury. But as huge a drag as the state has been on wealth creation, it is failing nevertheless. By the quality of our ideas do we “out-run” those who would enslave us. This is hardly ideal — there is no justice to being a slave, and there is no justice to living as a fugitive from slavery. Even so, I could make a Dawkins-like argument that eluding the pandemic wealth-destruction of government is an evolutionary goad — “How much intelligence does it take to sneak up on a leaf?” In any case, here is my celebration of some ideas that caught my eye today:
Phil Hoover from Boise Real Estate Blog is one up on all your shaggy-dog stories. Phil (blogrolled) had a great take on “Real Estate’s Broken Business Model” that I had noted but failed to mention when it appeared.
Christine Forgione at NY Houses 4 Sale tells an inspiring story with a $66 million happy ending. (Also blogrolled — boneheaded oversight; I live out of my feed reader.)
Kevin Boer at Three Oceans Real Estate argues that Realtors will never be disintermediated, but Pat Kitano at TransparentRE.com offers some possible caveats. Here’s a thought: The $99 divorce. It only works where the split is unclouded by children or property. But imagine a $999 FSBO package: The usual MLS-only marketing package with a buy-back guarantee for the buyer. Quoting me:
From the buyer’s point of view, the buyer’s agent’s compensation can be thought of as a risk premium. An important benefit the agent brings to the transaction is a reduction in the risks the buyer takes on in purchasing a home. There is certainly a value to this, but that value cannot possibly be infinite — nor even terribly elastic.
If, by using something akin to insurance, a Realty.bot can drive the risk of limited service buyer’s agency to something approaching zero — then what?
Technorati Tags: blogging, compensation for buyer representation, disintermediation, real estate marketing
Kevin Boer says:
Re. the $99 divorce, which, as you say, only works when the splitting parties already agree on most everything…the real estate analogy would probably be two parties that know each other, one of them wanting to buy the other’s house, and having already agreed on the price.
In that case, the best professional to help them is probably a real estate attorney, not a Realtor.
November 7, 2006 — 7:12 pm