This is just an example of the campaign by the media, DOJ, and Congressman Oxley (who wants Banks in real estate) to paint the REALTOR as the villain.

There are similar articles in the Wall Street Journal and other publications as well as news and talk shows.

Now...do you really want to give the data you work so hard to gather in the process of winning listings, to your competition who wants to drive you out of business? Do you think the government should have the right to make the fruit of your labor a regulated "public utility?"

Consumers should have this information is the cry...let them all cry. If you think it is in your best interest as a listing agent to let others use your data, then let them use it. If you don't feel that way, you should have the right to say no.

At the very least you should examine what is going on and be ready for any changes that might come.

Saul

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By Jayne O'Donnell and Sue Kirchhoff, USA TODAY Thu Jun 9, 8:00 AM ET
 

Manuel Iraola would be one of the National Association of Realtors' worst
nightmares - if it knew he existed.

In March, Iraola, a former president of Phelps Dodge Industries, launched an
Internet-based real estate company that seems designed to drive traditional
Realtors out of business. His Homekeys Web site is a how-to guide to buying
and selling a home in Florida without paying a traditional broker. (Related:
States' efforts to regulate industry raise concerns)

"Technology has influenced the expectations of consumers," Iraola says.
"People don't need to be driven around in a Cadillac to see properties."

That's one of the big worries of the Realtors-with-a-capital-R. Though it's
hard to find evidence they're struggling at a time of dizzying real estate
prices, traditional real estate agents are uneasy about retaining their
longtime lock on the market.

Their trade group has been in talks with antitrust officials about a new
Realtors policy that would limit the home listings that some low-cost online
brokers could show on their Web sites. Under threat of a     Justice
Department lawsuit, the group agreed last month to drop the policy.

It's unclear if that'll be enough to satisfy antitrust officials, who
continue to field complaints from online brokers about other aspects of
Realtors' Internet policies.

The fight about listings is part of a broader effort by the Justice
Department and the Federal Trade Commission to quash what they call Realtor
attempts in several states to prevent online brokers and other discounters
from competing with them. Federal antitrust enforcers want consumers to have
wider access to home listings and an easier time negotiating fees lower than
the typical 6% commission shared by buyer and seller agents.

"What you have is an industry that is using every tool they have to protect
their commission structure and protect their interests," says Van Davis, CEO
of Foxtons Real Estate, a discount firm. Davis formerly headed Century 21
Real Estate, one of the biggest realty firms.

But others say the Realtors' interests also protect consumers. Allyson
Bernard, an NAR vice president who has a real estate firm in Danbury, Conn.,
says many people underestimate the role of Realtors.

"A lot of the work that a Realtor will do, from getting a transaction from
beginning to end, is done behind the scenes, so people don't realize it,"
Bernard says. "When there's nobody there to watch in between, that's when
things fall apart (and) when it gets dangerous for a consumer."

A thriving industry

The rising scrutiny comes as real estate agents are both thriving and
feeling under siege. NAR membership is up to 1.1 million, from nearly
770,000 four years ago. A white-hot housing market and slower growth in
other parts of the economy have lured people into the field.

The Internet hasn't quite ushered in the revolution in sales and pricing
many predicted - or feared. NAR says its research shows, for example, that
the proportion of people who sell their homes by themselves - 15% - is about
the same as it was 25 years ago. But the Web has still been a major
influence.

Three out of four home buyers use the Internet to search for a house, NAR
says. A 2004 survey of nearly 3,000 NAR members found that nearly 90% used
e-mail to communicate with clients and that 52% had Web sites.

Real estate advertising is also gravitating to the Internet. Borrell
Associates, a media research and consulting firm, predicts a 55% increase
this year from 2004, to $1.8 billion.

The struggle with antitrust enforcers shows that many traditional real
estate agents fear the heightened competition from real estate Web sites and
discount brokers.

"He or she who controls the information controls the process," Iraola says.

As home sales and prices shatter records, some consumers are balking at
paying the traditional commission. Clients in sizzling markets, such as in
South Florida, are asking whether brokers should earn twice as much, in
dollar terms, on a sale as they did five years ago for the same job.

Discounters enjoy gains

In the meantime, discount brokerage firms are posting double-digit gains.
Real estate agents, struggling to find houses for their clients in hot
markets, are lowering fees or working with discounters.

Debbie and Robert Viator sold their Fort Lauderdale home last month through
Homekeys, saving $23,000 in commissions on the $575,000 sale price.

They paid $79 for a one-month subscription to Homekeys' "premium" research
and the $99 fee to post their home in Homekeys' "multiple listing service"
data - the listings Realtors pay to receive and have their properties
included in.

Debbie Viator says she found the experience similar to having a real estate
agent. Homekeys helped the Viators prepare their counter-offers. Staff
attorneys with Homekeys' title company went over their contract before the
closing.

Critics say some online brokers are providing only minimal services to
clients - merely posting a house on a Web site for a fee, for example -
while other real estate agents shoulder the work of showing homes,
processing offers, negotiating paperwork, helping find financing and
handling other details needed to close a sale.

"A lot of the discount brokers are just taking a fee ... and listing in the
(Multiple Listing Service used by Realtors) so other licensed brokers can
see it," says Texas House Rep. Joe Pickett, a licensed Realtor who wrote an
amendment that the Texas Legislature passed. His amendment would require
real estate agents to provide a minimum level of services - instead of just
listing a house on a Web site and leaving consumers to seal the deal.

In some cases, discounters offer enticements to lure people away from the
traditional commission system; hence the fights raging at the state and
local levels.

Some discount realtors say Pickett's legislation is intended to edge out
Web-based brokers. Pickett says he's protecting consumers.

"I just can't understand the fury" about requiring basic services, such as
answering questions or passing an offer on to sellers, Pickett says.

Realtors insist that when you look at the way their industry is evolving,
theirs is one of the most competitive sectors around.

"It's hard to find a more competitive business than this," says Steve Cook,
the Realtor association's vice president for public affairs. "You will meet
... dozens of highly qualified professionals out there eager to work for
you, and every one of them is willing to negotiate."

Some online brokers say the problem is that agents aren't passing their
gains onto clients. Unlike other businesses that have cut prices as
technology has boosted productivity, many Realtors still demand the standard
6% commission.

Cutting commissions

Douglas Searles, a Michigan life insurance company analyst, listed his Grand
Rapids home on ForSaleByOwner.com because he didn't want to pay nearly
$5,000 - 3% of his home's selling price of $160,000 - to a seller's agent to
do what he and his wife could do themselves. (He did offer to pay a buyer's
agent a 3% commission to boost interest in his home and wound up selling his
house to a Virginia-based buyer with an agent in two months.)

Without having to pay a commission to a selling agent, Searles says he had
more flexibility in the price he could accept.

"If more of us start to list on ForSaleByOwner, we can eliminate the
monopoly Realtors hold on home listings, and it will also lower the amount
of money they receive from their commissions, which are currently too high
for the work that they do," Searles says.

Patrick Lashinsky, a vice president of ZipRealty, a full-service discount
brokerage that charges 20% off the traditional fee, says he feels it's
"wrong" that while home prices are surging, "the commission structure hasn't
changed since Eisenhower was president."

By letting potential home buyers weed out properties on the Internet, his
agents have to personally accompany clients to only half as many houses as
traditional firms, Lashinsky says. The company saw its revenue soar from $4
million in 2001 to $62 million in 2004.

"It's like they (NAR) want to go back to before 1980 and say, 'We're not
going to allow the Internet to be allowed as a tool,' " Lashinsky says,
asking how it serves either buyers or sellers not to have a listing as
widely distributed as possible.

Adapting to the Web

Cook counters with the assertion that the industry has evolved well:

"Name me an industry that adapted to the Internet better than this one ...
an industry where you can look at the inventory 24/7 in your bedroom
slippers. Consumers who shop for homes by the Internet are more likely to
look for a real estate professional than those who don't. The reason is that
there is so much information out there."

Iraola, who moved his family 12 times in his career, had plans to retire in
2003 in South Florida and make money buying and selling homes. He felt that
Realtors had cost his former company a fortune by mispricing his homes and
was certain that he could do it better.

After spending two years investigating what other sites were offering and
how technology could distinguish their business, Iraola and a partner, Mario
Villena, launched their own site in Florida in March. On that site, they
say, people can find everything they need to buy or sell a property.

Homekeys offers sellers the chance to save half or up to all of the typical
6% commission. Those who want to sell their home completely on their own can
post a property listing on the site's free "owner listing service" and can
research other listings in their area for free.

Each weekday morning, the 57-year-old Iraola drives his black Mercedes-Benz
E-Class from his home in Coral Gables - one of four homes he owns - to his
fledgling company's headquarters in downtown Miami. He oversees a staff of
16 - brokers and others who deal with clients online or by phone.

He dreams that Homekeys will become a leader in high-quality real estate
service, just as Phelps-Dodge was a leader in mining and chemical
production. But he says he knows what he's up against with the Realtors.

"We're on the vanguard of a revolution," Iraola says. "But I thought the oil
companies were powerful."
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