If you've ever been in corporate America, you probably are familiar with companies who would succeed if only their management would get out of the way. I've never quite figured out what causes a seemingly intelligent person (or group of people, though intelligence seems to diminish exponentially as groups grow in number) perpetually to damage their business in the name of attempting to make things better.

All this is a roundabout way of mentioning the latest effort of genius from the National Association of Realtors. Even as NAR battles the DOJ over limiting listings data to Internet providers, the "leadership" has fired another salvo aimed at its own gun deck.

According to RealEstateJournal.com, NAR's directors during last week's annual convention reaffirmed a policy that allows brokers who list homes from the MLS on their website to omit certain homes from the web-published listings.

Further, the directors revised the policy to require that brokers use "objective criteria" when determining which listings to include. According to the article, these objective criteria can include location, type of property, "compensation offered by agents who find a buyer, or the level of service provided by the listing company.

"Thus," the article continues, "listings from brokers providing limited service for lower fees could be excluded from other brokers' sites."

Where now the local Multiple Listing Systems are required to provide all listings to participating brokers, the decision-making mechanism would be shifted from the MLS to the brokers.

While this could be a positive step, assuming the individual brokers have enough common sense to avoid eliminating listings from their site for some of the above stated reasons, the fact this continues to be a debate is both disturbing and distressing.

Apparently, the powers that be at NAR have yet to realize many of their members count on IDX and other MLS feeds to supply listings data and an automatic hook for clients visiting an agents' website.

They're so focused on preventing disintermediation of real estate that they cannot seem to understand market dynamics will dictate the success of alternative business models. Historically, the efforts to protect an industry's interests from new ideas generally only harms those whose interests theoretically were being protected.

So, hearkening bark to yesterday, I state again that simply being a member of NAR - particularly when being a member is only optional in the most liberal interpretation - does not mean one agrees with everything the group's directors may do.

(c) Jonathan Dalton, 2006 / Jonathan Dalton's Arizona Homes