{"id":228,"date":"2006-08-21T09:15:20","date_gmt":"2006-08-21T16:15:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=228"},"modified":"2006-08-21T09:20:14","modified_gmt":"2006-08-21T16:20:14","slug":"want-innovation-in-real-estate-get-rid-of-the-brokers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/228\/want-innovation-in-real-estate-get-rid-of-the-brokers\/","title":{"rendered":"Want innovation in real estate? Get rid of the Brokers . . ."},"content":{"rendered":"

The trouble with cops is that they make you feel safe when you’re not. Instead of attending to your own security on your own dime, you expect Officer Vengeance to swoop in and save you, like Batman with a beer-belly. Never happens, but we never stop insisting that it can, that it will, that it must!<\/i><\/p>\n

I think the real estate laws tend to work the same way. In reality, every minimum standard becomes the de facto<\/i> maximum standard — and the minimum standard in real estate is outrageously low. Yet consumers are convinced that licensing and license enforcement are sufficient protections — Captain America with a clipboard — for the biggest asset they own.<\/p>\n

This is a mistake, and, arguably, it is also the root cause of all the problems affecting the real estate industry. The NAR campaigned state-by-state for licensing laws not to protect the consumer but to protect its own membership from “unfair” competition. The NAR is<\/i> a cartel in the sense that real estate licensing laws exist to limit competition, thus to sustain artificially high prices. In naked essence, the laws consumers think are protecting them exist to fleece them instead. This is true of every sort of commercial regulation — and this is why regulation is sought by the established firms in a particular line of business in the first place.<\/p>\n

An obvious first place for the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to start, in attempting to fix what ails the real estate industry, would be to deregulate everything. If Chester the Barber wants to tape pocket listings to the mirror behind his chair, let him. If Sellsius°<\/a> wants to do more than advertise other people’s listings, let them. Caveat emptor<\/i>, of course, but let the buyer beware in full cognizance that due diligence and care are all the protection an emptor<\/i> or venditor<\/i> can ever<\/i> have in any commercial transaction. The courts might make you whole after you are injured, but your beer-bellied Batman is always<\/i> scarfing donuts when you need him the most.<\/p>\n

But: This won’t happen. Real estate licensing requires so little training that Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The trouble with cops is that they make you feel safe when you’re not. Instead of attending to your own security on your own dime, you expect Officer Vengeance to swoop in and save you, like Batman with a beer-belly. Never happens, but we never stop insisting that it can, that it will, that it […]<\/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":[3,4,6,5],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-228","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-blogging","7":"category-disintermediation","8":"category-marketing","9":"category-real-estate","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":617,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/617\/run-faster-theres-a-new-minimum-wage-in-arizona\/","url_meta":{"origin":228,"position":0},"title":"Run faster: There’s a new minimum wage in Arizona . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 8, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The voters of Arizona passed a number of those pernicious ballot initiatives Cameron argued against Monday night. Probably the most consequential is a coercive increase in the minimum wage. Warm-hearted people like to think of poor people making more money, but the net consequence of minimum wage laws is to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1040,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1040\/hillary-clinton-and-rotarian-socialism-whats-wrong-with-the-nar\/","url_meta":{"origin":228,"position":1},"title":"Hillary Clinton and Rotarian Socialism: What’s wrong with the NAR?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"February 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Business Week's Hot Property wrote yesterday about the NAR's having gotten into bed with Hillary Clinton -- who is \"sponsoring a bill that bars commercial banks from hiring real estate brokers\/agents\" -- but that's just the tip of the iceberg. The National Association of Realtor is routinely, habitually, congenitally anti-free\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Disintermediation"","block_context":{"text":"Disintermediation","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/disintermediation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":546,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/546\/propsmart-and-trulia-youre-cuddly-and-cool-but-you-dont-know-a-thing-about-searching-for-homes\/","url_meta":{"origin":228,"position":2},"title":"PropSmart and Trulia, you’re cuddly and cool, but you don’t know a thing about searching for homes . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 16, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Here's what I mean. This is a search I'm doing right now for a client: Active listings only MLS grids l32, k32 and j32 only (3 x 9 miles) Minimum of 3, maximum of 4 bedrooms Single-family detached homes only Minimum of $350,000, maximum of $450,000 list price Single-level homes\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15417,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15417\/hey-california-realtors-are-you-making-minimum-wage-for-your-efforts-if-not-your-broker-just-went-into-cardiac-arrest\/","url_meta":{"origin":228,"position":3},"title":"Hey, California Realtors: Are you making minimum wage for your efforts? If not, your broker just went into cardiac arrest.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Teri Lussier pointed this out to me last week, and I've been waiting since then for someone to plumb the implications. Ah, well, when there's constabulary work to be done... Here's the news: The state of California is making ZipRealty pay it agents minimum wage for their time. That's huge.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Mother"","block_context":{"text":"Big Mother","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/big-mother\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":526,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/526\/candles-incense-bells-and-ashes-redeeming-the-carnival-of-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":228,"position":4},"title":"Candles, incense, bells and ashes: Redeeming The Carnival of Real Estate . . .","author":"Greg Swann","date":"October 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been very gratified by all the comments we've had, both public and private, about raising the standards for The Carnival of Real Estate. We did what we did because we were behind the wheel. We had control of the Carnival for this one week, and it would have been\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blogging"","block_context":{"text":"Blogging","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/blogging\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9462,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/9462\/prometheus-without-forethought-using-the-bloodhound-meme-to-bring-clients-around-to-a-conversation-about-quality-in-real-estate\/","url_meta":{"origin":228,"position":5},"title":"Prometheus without forethought: Using the Bloodhound meme to bring clients around to a conversation about quality in real estate","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 5, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"My mind is alive with themes for BloodhoundBlog posts that I'm not writing -- the Principle of the Yes Man and the Elephant on the Balcony and Prometheus the Mind-Giver. I'd write more, except my having written so much over the past three years is paying off in spades --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Egoism in Action"","block_context":{"text":"Egoism in Action","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/egoism-in-action\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228","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=228"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/228\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=228"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=228"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=228"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}