What Others Are Saying
"The barriers to entry in our industry are insignificant"
Oct. 7, 2005 -- In light of recent media focus on the real estate industry and the Department of Justice lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors, RE/MAX International, Inc. released a position paper, "Competition in the Residential Real Estate Brokerage Industry," stating its position on competition in the industry.
Download the white paper (PDF, 306k)
From Realty Times: Listings Are Key to Antitrust
Column, Oct. 6, 2005: "Listings have always been the life blood of the real estate business. The saw that 'old Realtors never die, they just grow listless' points to this. Listings are important; and that is why brokers and agents expend considerable time, effort, and expense to obtain them."
Cendant Corp. to The Wall Street Journal: "The industry is already extremely open to competition."
Your Sept. 14 editorial, "Justice v. REALTORS®," concedes that REALTORS® actually do own their work product -- the listing, which is the agreement between a REALTOR® and a homeowner that describes the manner in which a home will be marketed and sold. The government should not get involved in dictating to REALTORS® and homeowners how those marketing plans should be implemented. The industry is already extremely open to competition. It establishes a fair price for its services and then markets its products to the competition, sharing 50% or more of its fee to attract buyers. And it voluntarily makes its inventory available to competitors, empowering them to avoid the costs and infrastructure to produce their own inventory.
Read the full letter
Comments from a REALTOR®: "Agents pay good money to have their listings advertised on the MLS"
I am very disappointed by the complete misunderstanding of the function of the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) by people who lack adequate knowledge about the real estate business. It is even more disappointing when it comes from a Deparment of Justice employee, who has likely never worked full time as a real estate agent, and therefore, does not understand the work involved, the general concepts and the complexities of the business.
Read the full letter
RE/MAX Announces Support for NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®' New ILD Policy
(Greenwood Village, Colo., Sept. 9, 2005) -- RE/MAX co-founder and chairman of the board, Dave Liniger, announced his support for the new Internet Listing Display (ILD) policy unveiled by the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® (NAR) yesterday. "We applaud NAR for adopting a policy that will allow all Realtors® equal access to property listings for display on their Web sites," Liniger said.
Read the full release
