The Freak finally found another real estate agent who sides with the consumer on this issue. Three cheers for Jon Strum!
What most other brokers and agents don't get is this. By removing listings from other brokers websites, big brokers are really only effecting those brokers who obtain the majority of their business from operating a VOW website. Companies that operate a VOW offer an alternative type of service for the consumer, one that is very threatening to the status quo.
Some facts. The chairman of the board of RE/MAX, the nation's second-largest real estate franchisor, publicly expressed his concern that these Internet sites would inevitably place downward pressure on brokers' commission rates. One broker complained that because of the lower cost structure of brokers who provide listings to their customers over the Internet, "they are able to kick-back 1% of the sales price to the buyer." And Cendant, the nation's largest real estate franchisor and owner of the nation's largest real estate brokerage, asserted in a widely circulated white paper that it was "not feasible" for even the largest traditional brokers to compete with large Internet companies that operated or affiliated with brokers operating VOWs.
If a MLS member broker decides not to enter a listing into the MLS so no other member can effectively inform consumers of that listing in person, by telephone or by VOW website ,then that's OK, it effects everyone equally. By "opting out" listings only from the Internet, a broker is only effecting those brokers predominately using the Internet to conduct business.
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