Although most anyone could have bought HomeStore.com stock at around $23 a share for a few days, to purchase 16,500 shares (as mentioned in the article) would have cost almost $400,000. Then we could have sold it in another ten days and made around $400,000.

Unless I'm reading the article incorrectly, the NAR board members didn't actually have to put out any cash to purchase the stock, but were provided options to purchase the stock at any time for $20.

So with absolutely no cash outlay, someone was able to put $400,000 cash in their pocket.

That isn't a common opportunity.