Itz News to Me

For all the scorn and blame that has been heaped on mortgage brokers during the last year, realtors have surprisingly escaped getting their fair share of the blame for the recent unrealistic run-up in real estate prices. I have long contended that they, in fact, are the number one reason that prices ran up as far and as fast as they did. Now they want to put the blame on lenders and brokers and the buyers, but never nor at any time on the real estate agents who are still spending every minute of every hour trying to convince people that *NOW* is the time to buy a house.

Forget the fact that they know prices are declining and will likely continue to do so over the next couple of years. Forget the fact that they know their buyers can’t afford the house they’re showing them. Forget the fact that even in a tough market that they’re unwilling to reduce their commission rates. And that’s where we come to the reason for today’s rant: the monopolistic behavior of the NAR.

You would think that the same market forces which affect most other markets in this country would affect real estate as well, but you would be wrong. Because of the near-monopoly that the NAR and its members exercise over the listing services, those who might compete with them are effectively shut out of the market. They have to pay higher prices for access to the listings, if they’re allowed access at all. Now, a light may be breaking into the darkness, as the NAR has been forced into a settlement with the Department of Justice to allow internet-based agencies to have fair access to those listings.

Given their history of manipulative behavior, I would bet that they’re still going to have to be dragged kicking and screaming into compliance with the agreement over and over again. But it’s a start. Once we can break the NAR strangehold on real estate, we might once again see some rationality in the marketplace.

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Dell has announced that is recalling 4.1 million laptop batteries because they might catch fire.

Just to clarify: Dell put out a product designed to sit in your lap. That product requires a battery. That battery could catch fire in your lap.

It’s a Sony battery, and obviously neither Dell nor Sony did it on purpose. But there are 4.1 million people at risk of catching their underpants on fire.

Are you one of them?

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