I was very impressed with the eRealty concept and compared this concept with simply automating a process that has been in place for years. An agent recieves a customer call and sends out MLS data as a follow up. Of course the agents puts his name as the contact person, hoping he will recieve a response to the snail mail. This is similiar to our "Branded Search". Emailing this information or providing a posted site where the customer can view this information is not significantly different to the old process. However, it is instant and more efficient for the customer and the agent. The key here is the confidential information delivered and whether or not there is a client agent relationship. Certainly the relationship has been established, so the only other issue is distributing confidential information and who determines which fields those are. So, now that technology is making the Realtor's job more efficient, market forces will dictate whether or not the brokerage fees will remain pretty much the same or whether this will allow discount brokerages to survive by working more efficiently with technology. The cat is out of the bag as far as limited MLS data searchable by the public and sites such as Realtor.com have created this environment. The public now searches on-line before they contact the Realtor. My suggestion is to provide the same technological Internet workstation tools to all of their association members, so the field will be level and the amount of business will be dictated by the follow up service. After all, isn't the idea to expose the listings for the highest and best price for the seller? In the end, the agents will close more transactions by working more efficiently.

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