New Rules for Online Real Estate - Real Estate Mafio stopped by Department of Justice
It is a good day for all the ‘not BIG Real Estate Companies’! As written in Forbes online,
The settlement between the Department of Justice and the National Association of Realtors gives discount Internet brokers full access to “multiple listing services,” the databases of homes for sale, many of which had previously been available to NAR members only.
This is a big deal as all the ‘lean and mean’ new real estate companies that did not want to ‘GOUGE’ the customers (buyers and sellers) by charging ridiculous real estate commissions were ’shut out’ by the MLS ‘real estate mafia’ of the big players. Kinda reminds me of when Richard Branson first started up Virgin Airways and how the BIG airline companies tried to shut any new kids on the block out by attempting to convince the airports to not offer any runways to Virgin.
“The settlement promises lower fees and better service to consumers by opening the marketplace to all brokers. It also marks the biggest step on the path to making real estate a Web 2.0 enterprise by shifting the real estate market into a place of free and open access of data by consumers.
The Department of Justice ruling is particularly valuable for Redfin and ZipRealty (nasdaq: ZIPR - news - people ), both online brokers whose past innovations and attempts to gain market share were stymied by the fear of losing access to the selective listings they were offered. “
Filed under: Maria Gudelis
