{"id":2050,"date":"2007-10-15T12:21:42","date_gmt":"2007-10-15T19:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=2050"},"modified":"2007-10-15T13:43:20","modified_gmt":"2007-10-15T20:43:20","slug":"the-odysseus-medal-stamping-out-white-shoe-corruption-with-or-without-pay-per-click-advertising","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2050\/the-odysseus-medal-stamping-out-white-shoe-corruption-with-or-without-pay-per-click-advertising\/","title":{"rendered":"The Odysseus Medal — Stamping out white shoe corruption, with or without pay-per-click advertising"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is your broker doing when he’s not milking you for overpriced business cards and overpriced letterhead with overpriced envelopes? He’s milking your buyers for overpriced loans, overpriced title services, overprices inspections, home warranties and hazard insurance policies. For some brokerages, there is never enough money to be squeezed out of a transaction. This is white shoe corruption — technically lawfully but oozing sleaze. Someday there will be a successful class action suit and it will all go away just like that.<\/p>\n

Until then, heed the advice of attorney Joshua Marks, who wins this week’s Odysseus Medal with Buyer Beware: You Don\u2019t Have to Use the Mortgage and Title Companies Affiliated with your Real Estate Broker. Make Sure You Shop Around!<\/a>:<\/p>\n

A recent class-action lawsuit filed in the state of Minnesota is bringing to light a long-standing issue that affects buyers of residential real estate throughout the country\u2014alleged steering of home buyers to affiliated title, settlement and mortgage companies by large realty brokers. This widely utilized practice often leads to consumers incurring a considerable amount of extra fees and costs when compared with fees and services offered by non-affiliated competitors.<\/p>\n

Many real estate brokerages rely on the income generated by clients using mortgage and title companies that are affiliated with them. Brokerages often attempt to maximize their \u201ccapture rates\u201d – the percentage of all home-sale transactions that use the affiliates\u2019 services. A consumer typically ends up paying more fees than if he\/she selected a non-affiliated competitor. The brokerages justify the additional expense to consumers by claiming that even if the affiliates\u2019 fees or mortgage rates are not the lowest available, the quality and dependability of the affiliates\u2019 services more than compensate for any price differences.<\/p>\n

Over the past several years, many cases involving financial relationships between brokerages and their affiliates have withstood legal challenges. So long as the financial arrangement was properly structured to comply with federal anti-steering and anti-kickback rules, the Courts have been reluctant to intervene in these arrangements.<\/p>\n

In the Minnesota lawsuit, two buyers filed claims against Coldwell Banker Burnet Realty Inc., one of the largest realty firms in the state. The Plaintiffs Read more<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is your broker doing when he’s not milking you for overpriced business cards and overpriced letterhead with overpriced envelopes? He’s milking your buyers for overpriced loans, overpriced title services, overprices inspections, home warranties and hazard insurance policies. For some brokerages, there is never enough money to be squeezed out of a transaction. This is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,3,6,5,23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2050","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blog-carnivals","7":"category-blogging","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","10":"category-the-odysseus-medal","12":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1984,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1984\/get-your-odysseus-medal-nominations-in-now-for-change-is-nigh\/","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":0},"title":"Get your Odysseus Medal nominations in now for change is nigh","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Jay Thompson fingered this comment from someone named Brandon writing at TechCrunch:If \u201cthe good guys\u201d succeed in \u201cfixing the most screwed up industry in America\u201d, their business model will collapse. Redfin\u2019s success depends SOLELY on the real estate industry STAYING the most screwed up industry in America. Without a co-broker\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2047,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2047\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":1},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I had been doing a short list of 20 nominees, but I had the idea that that was an overwhelming number. (It was for me.) This week I cut the short list to 12, and it's not only more manageable, it seemed to be easier to distinguish the exemplary posts\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2111,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2111\/the-odysseus-medal-competition-voting-for-the-peoples-choice-award-is-open-4\/","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":2},"title":"The Odysseus Medal competition — Voting for the People’s Choice Award is open","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 28, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A dozen nominees again, which is boiling down to one entry out of five. Already you're looking at what I view as the cream of this week's crop. We are slaves to the news, of course. This week's fires in Southern California dominated our attention. Congress seems desperate to do\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2742,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2742\/the-odysseus-medal-a-breathtaking-daisy-in-the-deserts-of-the-mind\/","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":3},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: A breathtaking Daisy in the deserts of the mind","author":"Greg Swann","date":"March 10, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"I was talking to Teri Lussier in email last week about Desert Daisies, an annual wildflower you find in the Sonoran Desert. People harvest the seeds and bring them home, and the flowers will eventually take over the whole yard -- for the few weeks they're around. Beautiful little clarions\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1835,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1835\/easy-nomination-form-for-the-odysseus-medal\/","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":4},"title":"Easy nomination form for The Odysseus Medal","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 22, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I built a quick and easy nomination form for The Odysseus Medal competition. You can continue to use the BlogCarnivals entry form, but I put this together to make it easier to nominate posts written by other people. The form lives at the top of The Odysseus Medal information page,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2238,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/2238\/the-odysseus-medal-small-pieces-loosely-joined\/","url_meta":{"origin":2050,"position":5},"title":"The Odysseus Medal: “Small pieces loosely joined”","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"My thought is that Michael Wurzer of the FBS blog doesn't do anything badly. Certainly his weblog is ripe with first-rate content. Michael is this week's winner of The Odysseus Medal with Data Portability Ain\u2019t Just A Real Estate Problem:You see, whether it\u2019s in an MLS or a social network,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog Carnivals"","block_context":{"text":"Blog Carnivals","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blog-carnivals\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2050\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}