Suddenly Bill Powers, COO of Realty Executives, finds himself to be the go-to pundit for media covering the investigation of the Department of Justice (DOJ) into NAR's online policies. During the NAR's mid-year governance meetings last week, CNN and USA Today both tapped Powers to be the counterpoint to the media's position that NAR is in the wrong to fashion an online listings policy for MLS subscribers.

"We have plenty more education to get through to the people that this issue is not about fees," says Powers. "It's about data rules."

Calling the DOJ's investigation into the NAR's virtual office Website (VOW) policy "misguided," Powers maintains that the real estate industry is "one of most competitive as well as being the most cooperative" of industries.

"What other industry shares its data to help the consumer with other competitors?" asks Powers rhetorically. "We have IDX (Internet Data Display), and we can put some of the information onto the Web and give that to consumers. That's a plus, but there is a lot of information that has no business being on the Web."

"We have no rules, and we have been trying to come up with [something] that doesn't stifle but increases competition, maintains a level of security, and offers consumers choices," he says.

Powers complains that the media spin is that somehow real estate data should be in the public domain, and that consumers are being prevented from having choice.

"It's preposterous that a USA Today reporter would have to share his notes and stories with all his competitors," suggests Powers. "He should imagine that when he hits the submit button to his editor that it also goes out to the Wall Street Journal, Time Magazine, and all his other competitors. And that when they post his story, he has to pay them for advertising his story!"

While the publishing industry has copyright laws preventing the illegal republication of intellectual content, the real estate industry has no such provisions, says Powers.

"You have to have rules," he maintains. "This is not a fee deal - that's the way it's being spun. We've had discount brokers for decades. The VOW and IDX rules have nothing to do with fees. The only ones who should be discussing fees are the broker and his client."

Powers continues with a spirited defense of the National Association of Realtors. "The 1.1 million Realtors who are members of the NAR include a lot of discount brokers," explains Powers. "NAR has never asked me what my fees are, and it's none of their damn business. The fee is decided by the consumer and the broker at the time they list the house, and market forces play a huge role. Fees have been dropping, and critics say, 'What about the appreciation? You are getting paid more money.' In boom markets there tends to be downward pressure on fees. As soon as the market corrects itself, and it will, pressure on fees will subside, because houses will be harder to sell."

"The NAR doesn't want to touch fees! If NAR was so anticompetitive, the '100 percent' concept would have been railroaded out of town. Now 40 percent of brokerages have it. I'm sure when Dale Rector (Realty Executives founder) and Dave Liniger (RE/MAX founder) got started - they didn't get grief from NAR - they got it from other brokers.

"When these guys and gals (discounters, third-party referrers) are losing and misleading the public by spinning this as a big industry attempt to squash new ideas, nothing could be further from the truth. They have been welcomed - that's what NAR is about, but NAR's idea is that everyone plays by the same set of rules."

Published: May 18, 2005

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