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Category: Disintermediation (page 31 of 43)

February 4, 2007

BloodhoundBlog week in review: Nothing exceeds like INTx . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Surely BloodhoundBlog is not the nerdliest joint on the RE.net, but we’ve still got a lot of arrows in our quiver — er, pocket protector.

For a start, I pinned the tail on Redfin, arguing that nerdy INTx geeks are in fact their target market. (Sing along: “I’m fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon.”) Kris Berg snagged an interview with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman, himself a palpably INTx specimen. We have to sit on her podcast until Thursday, but Kelman’s confirmation that the brokerage target markets techno-geeks is not an embargoed tidbit.

Kris had a great Redfin post of her own as did husband Steve Berg at The San Diego Home Blog.

And: I did geek-seeking missile duty by awarding the first Cheez Whiz Prize to a dead-pool destined circle jerk called my-currency.com. What did the starving mathematicians say when they stumbled onto a can of beans? “First we will postulate a can-opener…”

But just to establish my own hopeless geek bona fides, this week I became the first hopeless geek to write a song about real estate weblogging. “Cathy’s Clown” indeed!

But, Dave, I’m just a wave. I ain’t the water. So here’s what else has been going on in the BloodhoundBlog pond:

Investor Michael Cook took us along on his trip to Greensboro, NC, advising us that Time Really is Money and asking What makes a good investment? He follows up by naming some Watchouts for New Market Investing and then invites us to consider Bank Relationships vs. Mortgage Brokers.

In Googling for Pizza Kris Berg takes us on a very straightforward roundabout route through the SEO benefits of real estate weblogging.

Also on the theme of weblogging, Jeff Brown argues against the practice of allowing anonymous comments in It’s Time To Take The Lead — Let’s Turn The Lights On Now. Anonymous commenters are still permitted at BloodhoundBlog, but we’ve had to put everyone on a very short leash to avoid flaming, obscenity, etc. It’s common for people to argue that policing comments is “censorship.” This is incorrect. Censorship is something that is done by governments. The issue here is the right of private property Read more

February 2, 2007

A line in the sand: Gaius Popillius Laenas and getting the real estate transaction closed against all opposition . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Someday soon I’ll write a full-blown Realty Reality post about this transaction. I’ve written about it several times already, but my client is quite right in telling me, “This should be Chapter 14 in your book!”

What am I talking about? It’s a home that finally closed this week — after much back and forth, feint and parry, sturm und drang, threat and counter-threat — all in a day’s work.

I first wrote about this in an Ask the Broker post about a divorcing seller who was reluctant to move.

I talked about my own buyer briefly in a post about the realities of what we suppose to be tech-infused real estate brokerage.

Two weeks ago, I wrote what I thought was the last chapter in the story for the Arizona Republic (permanent link):

Sellers who aren’t motivated can create headaches

When Realtors speak of unmotivated sellers, what they normally mean are sellers who are unwilling to do what’s necessary to make their home appealing to buyers — price to the market, attend to repairs or keep the home show-ready.

I have a home in escrow right now where the seller doesn’t seem to be motivated to do anything.

I represent the buyer. When first we saw the house, it was graced by a great deal of debris. Not trash, necessarily, but not treasure, either, and none of it put away. When we were back in the home for inspections, nothing had changed.

And, to my knowledge, nothing has changed since then.

I have been driving by the home every other day or so, looking for external evidence of changes. Nothing discernible.

We were there on Friday for the final walk-through and we discovered one important change: The key in the listing agent’s lockbox no longer works. The seller had changed the locks.

What does this mean? The home is about to close and, to all evidence, the seller seems unmotivated to move out. There is every reason to suppose that every bit of debris we saw in the house a month ago is still there.

What happens next? We close the transaction, withholding funds in escrow to pay to have the seller’s personal Read more

February 1, 2007

A Different Perspective on the Value of Realtors

by

Real Estate Investor

Author website

Has anyone ever wondered why the price of real estate agents has been 5-7% for what seems like an eternity? I know I run a serious risk of stepping on a lot of people’s toes out there since this is a site run by realtors, but I really have been thinking about this a lot lately (particularly this morning after I read Greg’s articles). Additionally, several other articles got my attention (CNN Money, Business News, and The Wall Street Journal). If you stop to really think about this, you will realize that real estate agents have created one of the longest standing monopolies out there. Let me dust off my economics text book and delve a bit deeper into this subject. [Please note this is intended to spark discussion and not personally attack anyone’s profession. As I said before, I love a GOOD real estate agent].

What is a monopoly? Let’s simply define a monopoly as providing a good or service with very little competition. While this may be debated, humor me when I say that real estate agents have been providing their service with very little competition. This is evident in the fact that the price has stayed fixed for so long. One could argue that by using a percentage method, agents are simply hedging themselves against inflation. While that would partially explain this pricing phenomenon, the fact that the percentage has stayed the same despite significant changes in information control speaks of something else. In other arenas, when a significant technological advancement hits the market, prices typically drop accordingly or the level of service increase dramatically. Look at cars for example. As technology has improved cars have become much cheaper (in real dollars) than 70 or even 30 years ago. Additionally, an owner now gets many more standard services.

So do Realtors do more now than say 30 years ago? Of course they do. With the advent of new technologies, they provide marketing over the Internet, in newspapers, and perhaps even their own website. The more important question, however, is does the consumer get a higher value for the services they Read more

February 1, 2007

Whatever it takes: A determined Realtor is a bargain . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Jeff Turner wrote this in a comment, but I think my answer to him justifies a post of its own:

Greg, what percentage of transactions fall into the category of “requires great skill,” as a result of the kind of title issues you speak of in this post, and what percentage fall into the “no problems” category?

Four out of five, at least, seem very routine to me, but that’s misleading. There is no transaction we are involved in to which we don’t bring a great deal of non-obvious value. Frankly, if I just talk with you, or visit you at home, I’m going to shed a lot of information gleaned from experience. I’ve seen thousands of houses. I’ve worked with hundreds of buyers and sellers. I’ve been directly involved in dozens of escrows from start to finish. You might be a lot smarter man than me, but I have seen everything, big and small, that can go wrong in the sale of a home. I’m not just there for the paperwork, which any title company can do in Arizona, and I’m not just taking your order, sink or swim. My job is to make sure you get everything you want — as, when and in the amount you want. So even on transactions that seem routine to me, I will be doing many, many things for you that you would not know to do for yourself. It’s not razzle-dazzle salesmanship, and it’s not some vast brilliance. More than anything else, it’s the knowledge that comes from having done it so many times before.

For what it’s worth, the house that closed yesterday didn’t require great skill, just bulldozer persistence. A dozen phone calls a day for weeks, not letting up. Yesterday, I spent half the day in my car moving documents myself to avoid courier delays. This is dumb work, perhaps demeaning to some. My attitude: Whatever it takes. Last Friday I looked at a hopeless situation and bet everything I had that we could get the job done by the end of the month. At two-thirty yesterday afternoon, the movers were waiting Read more

January 31, 2007

Overcharging? A dedicated Realtor is a bargain . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Attorney Craig Blackmon issues a testy remark in a comment today, but the truth is, I could not be happier to discuss the underlying issue.

Sez Craig:

Well, it appears that even the “full service” agents are overcharging just a wee bit. It turns out that a successful agent must rebate nearly $69,000 a year to clients in order to charge a “fair” fee for the service. With this sort of transparency, I’m not sure Redfin has such a poor business model — at least they overcharge less.

I rebated more than half that amount in Q4 ’06 alone, so the number is not impressive to me.

Here is a number that has a very high priority for me today: Three.

That is the number of attorneys in two different states who tried with all their might — and failed — to kill one of my transactions.

They weren’t really trying to kill the deal — they were just being lawyers: Clumsy, stupid, ham-handed and — most particularly — slow. It took more than two weeks for the three of them to work out how to remove a bogus lis pendens that should never have been a cloud on the title in the first place.

I’m pretty sure each one of them made more on the house than I did.

But the important thing is, we closed the deal. A real estate attorney would have either killed the deal or bled the buyer white — for months. Lazy-for-less Redfin would have killed the deal. We closed today and my buyer moved in because I refused to let the transaction die.

I get paid for results, not ergs of energy expended nor drops of sweat spilled nor towering piles of paperwork. Results — not my time, not information, not obsequious service. I only get paid when I actually do the job I was hired to do.

Erg for erg, hour for hour, I lost my ass on this deal. But I don’t measure my life that way. I don’t have a job. I don’t get to eat one sesame seed every time I press the big red button. I work for days Read more

January 31, 2007

Bank Relationships vs. Mortgage Brokers

by

Real Estate Investor

Author website

Every property I have ever purchased has been with the help of a mortgage broker. After my recent trip, I have started to wonder why this is the case. The obvious answer is simply their access to cheaper capital. Brokers can secure rates 50 to 100 basis points (.5%-1%) lower than most local and national banks. Additionally, the terms tend to be more investor friendly, with longer amortization and no recourse. With all of these benefits, why would anyone consider going anywhere else?

The answers lie in two things: Technology and Relationships. The easiest explanation is simple disintermediation through technology. The Internet has opened the mortgage world to investors by allowing them to search many national and local bank rates, as well as, look across the country for the most aggressive mortgage lenders. The time will come (probably very soon, if not already) when some forward thinking investor will provide a site that connects investors and lenders in the same way mortgage brokers do now (think Lending Tree for Commercial Loans).

Additionally, looking at Brian Brady’s recent post, Interview: The XBroker, the industry seems poised for positive transparent change. This change will further allow disintermediation and provide investors unparalleled access lenders. Furthermore, increases in information will drive down pricing. I have consistently been quoted prices in the 1% (of loan value) range for broker services, which can be fairly steep as a percentage of closing cost when purchasing properties in the $500,000 to $1,000,000 range. I would love to see this come down to 50 to 75 basis points (sorry to the brokers out there, but business is business).

The less obvious answer is relationship building. I probably mention that real estate is a relationship business in 90% of my post because I really believe this. This concept is no different when working with banks. The value of the relationship, however, is not apparent right away. Most banks have specific lending criteria and will only be able to offer certain terms based on their risk assessment model. This fact alone keeps mortgage brokers employed. What investors fail to realize, Read more

January 30, 2007

Redfin and the antics of the INTx crowd . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

By my lights, one of the most interesting bits of news to come out of Inman Connect was Redfin’s announcement that they plan to swim into Boston Harbor. Washington State has reasonably normal wild-West real estate laws, as does California. The natural leap, in terms of maintaining a decent level of sanity over legal compliance, would be to migrate to nearby states — Nevada and Arizona leap to mind.

There is a problem with this idea, though. The median home price in Phoenix is around $260,000. In Las Vegas, the median is around $300,000. If Redfin proposes to give back two-thirds of a $9,000 commission, there is a word for what’s left: Doodly.

Unlike a true bottom-feeder, Redfin has encysted itself with a boatload of dead-heading barnacles. This is why it keeps trying to grow into luxury markets: The company needs one third of a bigger commission bite even to make a pretense at covering its inflated payroll.

Kris Berg points out today that this is a less than brilliant strategy, inasmuch as buyers and sellers of luxury homes are busy people who have the money to pay for the kind of roll-out-the-red-carpet service they have come to expect. “We do nothing for less” is not a winning value proposition, generally speaking, among prosperous people.

There is an exception to this rule, however. Kris hints at it by suggesting that younger people might be attracted to Redfin. They might, but few of them are buying or selling at the $500,000 level and above. Redfin actually sends a stronger hint by announcing their plans to jump to Boston.

A couple of months ago, I was on the phone with Galen Ward. He suggested to me that, while Redfin’s approach to the marketplace was only popular with hi-tech Seattlites for now, eventually they would be seen as early-adopters and the business model would meet broad acceptance in the marketplace. This is a colorable proposition, I suppose.

Just after Inman, I mentioned on Rain City Guide that I thought Move, Inc’s. Alan Dalton had mopped up Redfin’s Glenn Kelman in their debate. The example I offered was this: If you Read more

January 30, 2007

Ladies and Gentlemen – Meet the Flintstones

by

Realtor, Associate Broker

Author website

In the evolutionary chain of technology, I am somewhere between the Greg Swanns and Dustin Luthers of this world and, well, the Flintstones. Let’s just call me the missing link.

My generation wasn’t born into a world where computers, much less websites and blogs and mash-ups and code, existed. With each new technological advancement, we boomers learned to adapt or face extinction. The majority of us have learned just enough to be dangerous; given enough interest and perceived benefit, we have watched those around us and learned to apply the tools as they were introduced into our society. As for our parents and grandparents, meet the Flintstones. For many (most) of this segment, information technology was introduced too late in their era. My grandmother loves her computer to play Solitaire, but you will never find her converting a PDF to a JPEG or hanging out in a chat room. For all practical purposes, she is a dinosaur. Then there are our children. They have never know a world without personal computers, digital cameras, scanning and faxing. They will not remember a time without YouTube or MySpace except when these things are replaced with more advanced applications.

So, here comes the Redfin segue. Steve and I have been having some lengthy discussions lately about the Redfin model and its potential for broad success. Sure, we are a little short in the recreational-life category, but it has been a topic of discussion because I was recently invited to meet with Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman to “chat”. This being the eve of that meeting, it seemed apropos to reflect on the topic.

From my vantage point, this is the $64 question: How will Redfin succeed where so many others have failed? Or, rather, who is their audience? HelpUSell, Zip Realty and other discount business models have had a limited audience at best; they are not, nor do I believe they will ever be, setting the world on fire and achieving significant market share. Of course, Redfin is approaching the issue from a standing-on-their-head perspective. While they pay lip service to the listing side of the equation, their Read more

January 30, 2007

Transparency And The Wizard Of Oz

by

Real Estate Marketing Executive

Author website

OZ’S VOICE: Do not arouse the wrath of the Great and Powerful Oz! I said — come back tomorrow!

I bought my first house in 1984 when I was 22 years old. It was in Speedway, IN. I do not remember much about the detail of the transaction, but I do remember sifting through the classifieds of the newspaper, trying to get a feel for what I might be able to afford. I remember feeling lost. I didn’t know anyone in the real estate industry or where to begin, so I began calling around for someone to assist me. I had no clue what to look for. If someone had said, “come back tomorrow,” if I wanted the information, I would have had to come back tomorrow. How else was I going to get what I wanted?

When I look back, I’m amazed at how little control we as consumers had over what we were shown. I don’t remember giving it a second thought at the time. The real estate agent was like the Great and Powerful Oz. I was just happy to have a sitting.

DOROTHY: If you were really great and powerful, you’d keep your promises!

OZ’S VOICE: Do you presume to criticize the Great Oz?

[Toto pulls back the curtain to reveal the Wizard at the controls. The Wizard is unaware]

OZ’S VOICE: You ungrateful creatures! Think yourselves lucky that I’m giving you audience tomorrow, instead of twenty years from now!

[He turns, looks and sees that the curtain is gone — reacts and turns back to the controls]

OZ’S VOICE: Oh — oh oh! The Great Oz has spoken! Oh — Oh…

[The Wizard pulls back the curtain]

I get it. The Wizard had a great gig. Who’d want to give up being the Great and Powerful Oz? I know why he’d want to pull back the curtain. I know why he’d try to pretend no one saw him. Wouldn’t you do the same thing?

And I can understand why real estate agents were reluctant to move boldly to the Internet, to give up the information. I mean, for goodness sakes, they were Read more

January 28, 2007

BloodhoundBlog week in review . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We had quite a week at BloodhoundBlog. If you haven’t had a chance to stay abreast of the trail we’re running, here’s a summary of the week’s most significant weblog entries.

We added three new contributors this week, starting with real estate investor Michael Cook, who brought us The Right Time to Buy: An Investor Perspective, Out of State Investing: All Sizzle, no Steak and A Different View of Diversification.

Our second new arrival, Jeff Turner, is an entrepreneur producing video tour commercials for listing agents. His inaugural post was Lessons Learned While Watching American Idol, followed by a post exploring issues facing Realtors in the age of Realty.bots like Zillow.com: Disintermediation? Not For Me. Not Yet.

Our third new contributor is Norma Newgent, a Realtor working out of Tampa Bay, Florida. Her first post to BloodhoundBlog is Pack Up Your Toys and Go Home.

But don’t get the idea that our tricks are all a matter of new dogs. Every member of the pack did exemplary work this week.

As her reward for having won the Carnival of Real Estate, Kris Berg is honorary Queen of the Pack. With typically regal comical rigor (try saying that out loud), she brings us A New Agent Guide to Getting the Listing… and Getting Over It.

Jeff Brown is completely disgusted with blog carnivals, but that doesn’t stop him from producing first-rate investment advice. This week, he brought forth Your Retirement — A Few Questions, Is There Any Diversifying Alternative To Real Estate Investing? and Ben Stein Says Real Estate Is Easily Inferior To The DOW.

Dan Green presents an object lesson in the destructive consequences of seemingly harmless weblogging practices: Anonymous Posters Can Be A Destructive Influence, or How Communication Is The Difference Between Good PR and Bad PR.

Doug Quance is on a tear: It’s High-Time To Do Away With Referral Fees! Kris Berg weighs in with her own thoughts on the subject from The San Diego Home Blog.

Brian Brady posted another of his excellent interviews, this one with The X Broker, Jeff Corbett. Brian also brought us Mortgage Origination Is A Contact Sport.

Mega-producing Realtor Russell Shaw was interviewed Read more

January 28, 2007

Disintermediation? Not For Me. Not Yet.

by

Real Estate Marketing Executive

Author website

I hated my last REALTOR?. Well, hate is a strong word. I don’t really know him well enough to hate him. But I’m sure if the sale had taken just one week longer, I would have known him just long enough to wish him all manner of ill will. I KNOW I hated the work he did. I hated even more the work he didn’t do. The story of my last home sale is a rant all in itself. (Yes, ARDELL, I will write about it one day.) But that day is not today.

Remember, I’m not a REALTOR? or a real estate agent. And before I got into the business I’m in now, I could NOT have told you the difference. I freely admit that I don’t know 1/100th of what the other writers on this blog know about real estate or title or lending. I probably know more than your average consumer, at least you’d hope so, but I’m still a consumer.

I just finished reading some of the writing on this blog and others about disintermediation. Greg Swann’s “Disintermediaton where? Oh, yeah…” set me on a bit of a reading tear. Thanks, Greg. Just when I thought I’d get to bed early.

Given how bad my last transaction was, you’d think I’d be the first to jump at the opportunity to sell my house on my own without the use of a “middleman” and use all the latest available technology to let me do that. You know, seller connecting directly with buyer. You’d be wrong.

Of course I’d be tempted. In many moments of passion, I’ve even said out loud that I would. But if I needed to sell my house tomorrow, I’d still call one of the extremely good REALTORS? or real estate agents I’ve met in the last three years and I’d have them do it for me. Why? Because I don’t know how to sell real estate? No. I would be willing to bet all the equity in the house that I could get as many buyers to visit my home as just about any real estate professionals I Read more

January 27, 2007

Disintermediation where? Oh, yeah . . .

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

HouseValues.com is laying off 60 employees. Why? Zillow.com.

Year-over-year, mainstream media job cuts are up by 88%. Why? Ahem…

The question I asked was: How much future is there in a job that millions of very smart people are willing to do for free?

But, but, but! Surely the work product of professional journalists is worth more than the random output of pajama-clad amateurs!

Worth more to whom?

An even better question, the first question I posted on BloodhoundBlog: If almost-as-good is free or nearly free, what is the market value of slightly-better?

Here’s an even better question: Taking account of the Russell Shaw podcasts — Parts I, II and III — and reflecting that there will be many more such podcasts, here and elsewhere, how much are you willing to pay for products like those sold by Nightingale Conant…?

January 21, 2007

Are appraisers being pimped as involuntary seeing-eye-dogs for the congenitally blind AVMs . . . ?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

From this morning’s Boston Herald:

Appraisers have resented AVMs for years, in part because the computer estimates have cut into appraisal companies’ business.

But the industry also challenges AVMs’ accuracy – especially in today’s market, where prices in some locales are falling rapidly.

And now, some firms claim a key industry player is even stealing data out of human-produced appraisal reports.

Critics say AppraisalPort.com – which appraisers use to electronically ship reports to banks – is extracting information and reselling it to AVM users.

To add insult to injury, appraisers say they must pay AppraisalPort parent FNC Inc. $5 every time they use the site to send reports to lenders.

“We are paying, (but) they are stripping out our work product without paying us a dime,” said Patrick Turner, a Richmond, Va., appraiser.

FNC spokesman Angela Atkins admits that her company extracts property-description data from appraisal reports.

But she said the firm can legally do so, and doesn’t take proprietary narrative analyses or valuation estimates.

She said FNC is building a national property-data repository for its customer base, which mostly consists of major U.S. mortgage companies.

“We are not an AVM company, and we could not exist without appraisers,” Atkins said.

But appraisers claim that what they include in reports – a home’s square footage, number of rooms, etc. – is proprietary information that goes way beyond public records.

For example, Turner said one appraisal he recently did showed a house had 2,900 square feet of above-ground space and a 1,200-square-foot, newly renovated basement.

By contrast, public records listed the home’s size at 1,100 square feet.

“Imagine the difference in (appraised value) between a 1,100-square-foot house and a 2,900-square-foot house,” the appraiser said. (AVMs) can’t be accurate when the public records they are relying on are out of date or wrong. That’s why everybody wants to strip out our data – it’s valuable because it’s accurate and current. But they don’t want to pay us for it.”

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January 16, 2007

NAR & DOJ – Russ & Russell Part 2

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Russ Cofano responded:

Russell,

I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you on this subject.

First, my comments should not be taken to mean that I support the DOJ’s position and hope that they win. Nor do I necessarily support the NAR position with its rulemaking. As I have said before, I do support innovation and think that brokers need to spend more time finding new ways to deliver value to consumers.

Second, let’s define a couple of terms.

“Broker” means any person or firm that has been licensed as a real estate broker under applicable state law.

“Traditional Broker” means a Broker who either directly or through agents, actually assists buyers and seller with buying or selling a home.

Third, this is a VERY long post and I apologize in advance as I usually don’t like posts of this length. Proceed with caution and a good cup of coffee…. )

Regarding the definition of MLS Participant, you said:

“And that is the most logical definition possible under the circumstances. It is important to keep in mind what the MLS actually IS – a communication system set up by brokers for offering and accepting offers of compensation…..to fail to define a real estate broker (the only people ever originally intended to have access to the MLS) any other way than someone who is actively working with buyers and sellers makes no sense.”

Here is the problem from the DOJ’s perspective. Before this rule change, a licensed Broker could join the MLS and open up a store front with no intent of helping a seller sell or a buyer buy. They could call it “Referral Realty” and have full access to the MLS database for purposes of cultivating potential buyers to refer on to “traditional” brokers in exchange for a referral fee. This is allowed by most state license laws. In fact, this type of situation occurs today in some areas where retiring licensee hang their licenses with a Broker in hopes of leveraging their referral base despite having no intent to actually assist a buyer or seller. The problem with this business model is that the referral business Read more

January 15, 2007

NAR & DOJ – Russ & Russell Part 1

by

Mega-Producing Realtor

Author website

Russ Cofano responded:

Hi Russell,

Happy to add some background here. You ask, “But aren’t the “anti-competitive policies” basically who has the right to decide how and where listings will be displayed?”

Kinda.

The initial DOJ complaint against NAR revolved around NAR’s initial Virtual Office Website (VOW) policy that allowed brokers to selectively “opt-out” by not allowing certain brokers to display their listings online. This would have allowed a “traditional” broker the right to effectively hand pick the firms that they don’t want to compete with online by eliminating any chance for them to have inventory to show to prospective buyers. From the DOJ’s perspective, the problem was that the under these same MLS rules, that same broker could not prohibit a particular “bricks and mortar” company from showing listings to a buyer who walked in off the street. The distinction being online vs. offline. NAR then amended the VOW rule and replaced it with the new Internet Listing Display (ILD) policy which changed the selective “opt-out” to a blanket “opt-out”. In other words, the broker could not selectively pick which brokers could display their listings online. Either everyone or nobody. Since the ILD policy applies across the board, NAR felt that it eliminated the anti-competitive concerns of the initial VOW policy.At or about the same time, NAR changed its definition of “MLS Participant”. The new rule defines an MLS Participant as a broker who makes offers of compensation to and accepts such offers from other brokers. Prior to the change, an MLS Participant had only to be capable of making and accepting offers of compensation.

This last issue is, I believe, the REAL issue in this case. NAR wants to define who can have access to and display listing information online as brokers who are actively working with buyers and sellers and sharing commissions via the MLS. DOJ believes this is too restrictive and that any licensed broker should be able to have such access. DOJ believes that such restrictions will stifle innovative brokers from assisting consumers in non-traditional ways.

Let’s face it. Most MLSs are powerful entities when it comes to aggregation of Read more

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