Real estate Internet marketing has taken a huge change in the last week.

1. RE/MAX International has announced the franchise firm is working on a national Internet Data Exchange portal to debut in early 2006. Leads will be free to agents.

2. Homestore has announced that it will suddenly be providing what it has been precluded from doing in its operating agreement with the National Association of Realtors -- incubating and charging for leads. It has created a new lead generation product called Top Marketer (TM).

3. Cendant brands have beta-tested a national IDX search called Search Router (tm), a companion to their cellphone based lead management system LeadRouter (tm) that routes free inquiries to its participating brand brokers. The individual brands of Cendant, Century21, ERA, Coldwell Banker, NRT, and Sotheby's have their own Websites. Search Router will provide a national search upon request once consumers have seen the brand's listings and would like to see more.

And that's not only what's pending, but what's been confirmed at this writing.

What can it all mean? A deal is in the making or has already been struck.

The persistent Department of Justice and the beleaguered National Association of Realtors has either reached a compromise on the contentious virtual office policy, or is very close to one.

And it's obvious that some very big dogs know what's about to happen. And judging from the announcements, it's obvious what it is going to be.

For those who have forgotten, the NAR Internet policies were designed to empower all MLSs with rules for data-sharing among members to the public, but allow brokers the same rights they have under their state laws -- the power to opt out of putting their listings on competitors' websites.

Third-parties, discounters, buyer's brokers and other have-nots as in have-not-listings, fearful of being shut out of using other brokers' listings on their Internet sites cried foul. The DOJ threatened to sue the NAR in an anti-trust action. The NAR, recognizing an unwinnable situation, announced they would seek a hybrid of their existing policies -- IDX (requiring no signature on the part of consumers to see listings, but they would have access to limited information) and full MLS data via virtual office Websites (requiring signatures by consumers to see all of the listing data, including information not normally shared with the public.)

In addition, the NAR is facing more Senate hearings to be led by Mike Oxley, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services which regulates banks, (and we all know banks want to be in real estate badly,) where he will read a sure-to-be-ugly GAO report on the real estate industry that is deliberately slanted by have-you-stopped-beating-your-customers-type questions. The report is designed to prove anti-competitive, anti-consumer practices, and there's nothing the NAR can do about it, because when you get right down to it -- any practice that makes money could be construed to be anti-consumer.

It's doubtful that the NAR's settlement with the DOJ will cause Oxley to back off because the agenda is to make the real estate industry look bad so banks can be heroes in taking it over. But at least an IDX/VOW policy compromise will take one issue off the table -- consumer access to MLS listings.

Considering the paper storm of bad publicity the DOJ and have-not-listings competitors have already milkfed to the Wall Street Journal, The New Republic, and numerous other publications, there's really nothing else the NAR can do.

What does this mean to you? If every member of an MLS can have the IDX/VOW hybrid that the NAR created to appease the Department of Justice, listings will be ubiquitous, and we all know what happens to the value of anything that becomes commonplace. It goes down and value has to be proven some other way.

Once listings are everywhere, what happens to the real estate industry? How do franchise brands and independent brokers provide value to their associates? How do third-party lead generation companies compete? It will no longer be about who has listing information, because everyone will have it, so what's the next step in the competition wars?

Alex Perriello, president and CEO of the Cendant Franchise Group, has one answer -- remember the seller.

"Brand becomes important when information is ubiquitous," says Perriello. "I think brand will be very important. Our view is that our job was to drive traffic to that local broker, through the national site with no referral fees, and provide them with a tool to manage those leads when they get them. We feel that is our responsibility."

The seller has been forgotten in the VOW/IDX debates, maintains Perriello. They chose a Realtor to showcase their home to buyers, not to simply put their home on the Internet for anyone to see.

"By starting with the brand listings, we are showing the strength of the brand," explains Perriello, "and if the consumer wants to see more, they can click through on Search Router to all the available listings, but our listings come first. That's why sellers hire our brokers. They want to see their homes showcased."

The end result, says Perriello, is that the seller and the consumer are served. "I really think we are leveraging what our brokers have done for local websites, and we are giving customers and sellers what they deserve."

And for the rest of the industry -- what do the third-parties, buyer's brokers, and other have-not-listings get for forcing the NAR to moderate its state-law-based policies? They got no more reason to complain. They got what they wanted, didn't they?

They also got something they didn't want -- they awoke sleeping giants. Now the have-not-listings can compete with the biggest brands in the nation on a national scale as the brands fiercely protect their franchisees and their customers -- the agents. The big brands turned a major threat around into the best recruiting tool in years -- free leads to affiliates.

It's the worst outcome possible for the have-not-listings. What the NAR capitulation will do is empower the very companies the have-not-listings were hoping to cut down to size -- the large brands, the ones with market share.

Now they have the listings they wanted to try to get customers, but at what price? What will these companies have to do and spend to get business away from the evermore invincible brand brokers?

As for the third-party lead generators, some brokers will still allow themselves to be put behind a lead generation curtain, because they don't belong to a big brand, and some big brand brokers will continue to use these services for incremental business, but by and large, it appears the big franchise companies have just taken back the fort.

The brands can do anything the have-not-listings can do, only bigger and better because they are giving the leads away free of charge to their licensees and their agents, and because five of the largest franchises in the nation have a healthy accumulation of their own listings as well as the MLS aggregate with which to not only lure customers but to delight their sellers.

Congratulations to all those who fought the NAR in the hopes of opening up competition. You got exactly what you asked for - more competition from branded brokers than you ever dreamed of.