Housing.com News, Analysis & Opinion: Buying and Selling: The Realtor Curse

A great many of these agents and brokers, more than 1.2 million, belong to the National Association of Realtors, which the Department of Justice accused in a recent lawsuit of behaving like a cross between a cartel and a mafia, hoarding access to home-sale databases and harassing competitors who dared to offer discounted commissions.

The Internet is a natural repository for the sort of data that drive the real-estate market. New sites like zillow.com let anyone try to figure out (if imperfectly) what his home is worth; sites like craigslist.org allow buyers and sellers to easily find each other. As those services and ones like them become more popular, it is hard to imagine that the market will allow Realtors to maintain their hefty commissions.

That's exactly the modus operandi that this site, others like it, bubble bloggers, and FSBO sellers all have in common: We're out to give power back to the people. The more knowledge you have about how to buy and sell your home, the more money you can earn--and the less money you have to give some goofball who took a part-time weekend course and calls themselves a realtor.

If for no other reason, I recommend the book because it provoked a very testy response from the NAR, and that never gets old.

One point that the media is picking up on as housing continues to slow is that the huge boom in employment from housing isn't just in construction. It's in brokers, realtors, sellers, and everyone else who was all about flipping properties to make a quick buck. When the market finally hits bottom and prices drop, the only thing these wannabe-David Learah types will be flipping is your Quarter Pounder with Cheese.

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There's an awesome article from Steven Leavitt and Stephen Dubner (authors of the excellent Freakonomics discussing why realtors are on the way out. You can find the article at the Times and the Globe, but ya gotta pony up free registration for both. You know the drill--BugMeNot. ;) Money quotes: A great many of these agents and brokers, more than 1.2 million, belong to the National Association of Realtors, which the Department of Justice accused in a recent lawsuit of behaving like a cross between a cartel and a mafia, hoarding access to home-sale databases and harassing competitors who dared to offer discounted commissions. ravel agents were shoved aside once the Internet gave customers the ability to book their own trips — and when, perhaps more damagingly, the airlines decided to stop paying the travel agents' commissions. The Internet is a natural repository for the sort of data that drive the real-estate market. New sites like zillow.com let anyone try to figure out (if imperfectly) what his home is worth; sites like craigslist.org allow buyers and sellers to easily find each other. As those services and ones like them become more popular, it is hard to imagine that the market will allow Realtors to maintain their hefty commissions. That's exactly the modus operandi that this site, others like it, bubble bloggers, and FSBO sellers all have in common: We're out to give power back to the people. The more knowledge you have about how to buy and sell your home, the more money you can earn--and the less money you have to give some goofball who took a part-time weekend course and calls themselves a realtor. If for no other reason, I recommend the book because it provoked a very testy response from the NAR, and that never gets old. One point that the media is picking up on as housing continues to slow is that the huge boom in employment from housing isn't just in construction. It's in brokers, realtors, sellers, and everyone else who was all about flipping properties to make a quick buck. When the market finally hits bottom and prices drop, the only thing these wannabe-David Learah types will be flipping is your Quarter Pounder with Cheese.