Re/Max Real Estate WebSite to Show All U.S. Listings
The Los Angeles Times has a piece today, Re/Max Site to Show All U.S. Listings.
The nation’s second-largest real estate brokerage is expected to announce today a plan to pool all U.S. residential property listings on its website, a move that would create a formidable national competitor to industry-backed Realtor.com.
The move by Re/Max International Inc. also could eventually help reduce consumers’ costs of buying and selling homes, as competition with other Web-based brokerages heats up.
This is a great move for homebuyers for it will give them real time information. No more opening up the newspaper to look at too many ads and never find the home(s) you desire.
This is good news for homesellers since increased competition for the display and marketing of sales will lower the standard 6% commission here in California. No need to pay for print advertising and other marketing tools when your property will have high visibility.
This is BAD news for newspapers, especially local and regional ones who sell real estate print advertising.
Online real estate companies and consumer advocates have long complained about the real estate industry’s efforts to limit access to property listings on the Internet. They see it as an attempt to thwart competition from Web-based upstarts, which typically charge lower commissions or charge referral fees.
The issue has attracted the attention of federal antitrust officials, who have been investigating the online policy of the industry’s powerful trade group, the National Assn. of Realtors, which gives its members the right to withhold their listings from online brokerages.
But Re/Max, which has supported the trade group’s policy, will announce today that it will compete head-on with online companies and create a national database that would include any property listing, whether it is a Re/Max listing or not.
“It’s a very big positive for consumers,” said Steve Murray, an industry consultant and editor of the trade newsletter Real Trends. “With competition and with more choice, my bet is this will lead to more efficient pricing.”
Indeed.