It wasn't too many years ago that a lot of very smart people were predicting that real estate professionals, like dinosaurs, sloths, and saber-tooth tigers before them, were about to become extinct. It was not that they were going to be replaced by someone else – persons or a profession that would fulfill a perhaps similar, but slightly different, function – but rather that they just wouldn't be needed at all.

People thought this for two reasons: (1) The Internet was (and still is) making information available about almost everything to almost everybody at any time of the day or night. (2) The primary - if not sole - purpose of real estate professionals was to provide information about the market. Hence, the smart people thought, people would no longer need real estate agents, because they could easily obtain the relevant information themselves.

As an example, the demise of travel agents was often cited. They, too, were predicted to be practically eliminated as a result of the internet. And, certainly, things have looked that way. (To be sure, other factors have been at work too.) In 1997 there were approximately 44,000 travel agencies in the U.S. In 2011, the number was roughly 20,000.

Curiously, though, despite all the pundits had to say, the membership in the National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has actually increased, substantially, during the same period of time. Yes, it has dropped from its peak during the bubble years, but still it is noteworthy that in 1997 NAR membership was 716,078, and in 2011 it was 1,009,940.

A couple of things explain the differences: (1) Much - though not all - of a travel agent's inventory was fungible, which is pretty much to say, interchangeable. Non-stop coach tickets from Los Angeles to Dallas are pretty much the same, regardless of airline, with the exception of time and price. When people can get the latter information themselves, they don't need an intermediary. (2) That is not so true of real estate. The closest thing to fungibility might be model matches in the same development; but, as we all know, two Plan B's in the Happy Homes Tract can differ in value by many thousands of dollars.

Another, undoubtedly more important difference, is that a real estate transaction -- unlike the purchase of an airplane ticket - involves a variety of dimensions or levels. The negotiation between buyer and seller is just the beginning. To name just a few, there are also considerations involving such things as taxes, title, physical and pest inspections, insurance, settlement agents, warranty provisions, and the date of occupancy.

The real estate professional is not the person who attends to all these things, but he or she is the one at the center - coordinating them and making sure they fall into place.

The real estate agent has a central role to play in the transaction; but with that role also come responsibility. It is twofold.

One aspect of the responsibility is competence. There's a lot of stuff the professional needs to know in order to properly orchestrate a transaction closing. They can never know enough. A wise person once said: "We have two things to give to our clients - our time and our knowledge. And we are running out of time."

The other aspect of an agent's responsibility is a commitment to ethics. With so many moving parts in a transaction, myriad opportunities exist for a central player to take advantage of a principal - to place the agent's interest above that of the client. This is where true professionalism comes into play: when the competence and character of an agent combine to deliver service that is both reliable and trustworthy.

That sort of performance is not about to be disintermediated or replaced by an automated exchange.

Published: March 6, 2012

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Bob Hunt is a former director of the National Association of Realtors and is author of the recently published book, "Real Estate the Ethical Way." A graduate of Princeton with a master's degree from UCLA in philosophy, Hunt has served as a U.S. Marine, Realtor association president in South Orange County, and director of the California Association of Realtors, and is an award-winning Realtor. Contact Bob at .