Michael Wurzer I’ve been meaning to write more thorough posts on both of these topics, but I just haven’t focused enough to get them written. I think the issues are important, though, and so want to highlight them for you and provide my initial reactions.
Inman recently published 10 Action Steps for reforming real estate. (Side note: The link to Inman likely is behind a pay wall. Is there any place these 10 steps are not behind a pay wall. If not, why not?) Nearly every action step involved some “magic” bullet from either the government or some other monopolistic institution like a “national MLS”. Many of the comments to the article say what I have to say, namely that regulation and monopolies are not the answer, more competition is the answer.
The CAR/CALMLS folks also are now going around California promoting their calREDD system, which I don’t think is operational anywhere yet. They visited one of our customers up in Shasta County last week, and I’ve been engaged in a good discussion with the MLS on their blog about the downsides of creating a monopoly (as opposed to competitive) MLS system. The more conversation we can have and publish about these decisions, the better. Solving the problems over overlapping market disorder while preserving and increasing competition is possible, but not through a single statewide MLS system.
I wonder how I can say this more loudly and clearly: COMPETITION, please!
Update: At the Clareity MLS conference this morning, Gregg Larson reported that SoCal MLS has voted unanimously NOT to sell to CALMLS.