Competition in the Real Estate Brokerage Industry - #1

The title of this post is also the title of a report issued in April 2007 by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. The 78 page report is at this link as a .pdf file for download. As with many government reports, it's pretty dry reading. The #1 part indicates that this is the first of a series of blog posts. Assuming many of you will not have the time nor inclination to wade through the 78 pages, these posts will provide a synopsis of the report.

The report is an overview of the material presented and viewpoints expressed in a public workshop in October, 2005. Conspiracy theorists have wondered about the timing of the release, just preceding the 60 Minutes episode on the subject. More likely is that it just takes the government 18 months to write down their interpretation of a meeting.

The people who testified at the Workshop:

Cathy Whatley, real estate broker and Past President of NAR

Robert Hahn, economist and Executive Director, American Enterprise Institute-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies

Aaron Farmer, Owner of Texas Discount Realty

Thomas Kunz, President and Chief Executive Officer of Century 21 Real Estate LLC

Colby Sambrotto, Chief Operating Officer of ForSaleByOwner.com

Wayne Thorburn, Administrator, Texas Real Estate Commission and Immediate Past President of the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials

Steve DelBianco, Executive Director, NetChoice Coalition

Thomas Early, President, National Association of Exclusive Buyers’ Brokers

Philip Henderson, Vice President, Lending Tree

Geoff Lewis, Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, RE/MAX International, Inc.

Alexander Perriello, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cendant Real Estate Franchise Group

Lawrence Yun, Managing Director of Quantitative Research, NAR; Chang-Tai Hsieh, Associate Professor of Economics, University of California

In addition, the Agencies received almost 400 submissions in response to their request for public comment in connection with the Workshop.

Entire series: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, #8, #9, #10, #11, #12, #13, #14, #15, #16, #17, #18, #19 & final