Realtors to revise Web policies
WASHINGTON – The board of directors of the National Association of Realtors agreed Saturday to rework its policy on Internet home sales in an attempt to head off an antitrust clash with the federal government.
The Justice Department has been investigating whether competition would be stifled by a proposed rule that would allow real estate brokers to withhold their detailed listings of properties for sale from the Web sites of competitors.
“We hope that we can find a common ground with the Justice Department, but we want to make it absolutely clear that we are reserving the right to defend our policy,” association President Al Mansell, who is chief executive of a Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Salt Lake City, said in a statement Saturday. “Today’s board action demonstrates that we are entering these discussions in good faith.”
A conflict has long been simmering within the real estate business between traditional full-service brokerages and newer Internet-based discount companies over the control of listings. It came to a boil this week as the Realtors association, whose members include about a million real estate agents, held its midyear meeting in Washington as the Justice Department was considering an antitrust suit over the group’s Internet policy.
The association acknowledged that it has been in a dispute for 20 months with the Justice Department. Justice Department spokespeople confirmed that regulators have been investigating the impact on competition, but they would not say whether a lawsuit was being prepared. The department’s public affairs office Saturday did not return telephone calls seeking comment.
Stephen Cook, a spokesman for the Realtors association, said Saturday that more meetings with regulators have not been scheduled, but they will be. “We view this as the beginning of a series of discussions with the attorneys at Justice.”
Although the association does not legally regulate real estate agents – that is up to state governments – its policies effectively govern how members do business with each other.
Compared with some other industries that have had their pricing transformed by the Internet and discount competition, such as travel agencies and stock brokerages, real estate brokers have mostly been able to continue charging commissions of 5 percent to 7 percent.
In May 2003, the Realtors association adopted a policy that would have allowed brokers to opt out of having their listings appear on Web sites run by other brokers who participate in the same regional listing services they do. They could have blocked listings from going to all other broker Web sites, or just to selected brokers.
Backers of the policy say that they work hard to get listings and should be able to control where they appear, particularly whether they show up on the Web sites of discount competitors. Opponents of the policy counter that making the most information available to the most people could cut costs to consumers.
The policy, which would affect an in-depth type of listing called Virtual Office Websites, has never gone into effect. Saturday, the group’s board delayed putting the policy into effect at least until January. It said it was directing its leadership to come up with an Internet policy acceptable to the government.
The group already has rules covering a less-detailed type of listing called an Internet Data Exchange. Most Web sites that offer real estate listings do so under these rules. Under the policy, brokers can also choose to opt out of sharing their listings but won’t get reciprocal access to the listings of other brokers. Or, at the specific request of a customer, they can hold back individual listings.