New business models are coming under scrutiny by the real estate industry, but some claim they have a right to benefit from using the MLS without disclosing their business model to competitors.

AtlantaHomeView.com has come under fire from some competitors because it's not clear whether it is a brokerage or a search engine, but principle broker Andre M. Escoffery says it's right on the front page "about us" that the company is indeed a brokerage.

But in a world where lead generation, advertising and data-mining companies like Zillow.com can enter MLSs disguised as brokers, is just saying you're a broker good enough to satisfy other MLS members?

What's disconcerting is that the site offers no broker's name to call in the event of a problem; and there are no agent names. In fact, if you try to find out who the site belongs to, you'll encounter a blind "whois," at godaddy.com. To track down the broker of record, a consumer would have to be a member of the local MLS.

That's deliberate, says Escoffery, and essential to the company's business model. Promotion of the brokerage and agent is not a priority, he says.

"Our sales department email address only answer (sic) to customer inquiries and dumps and/or flag all others, that is how much emphasis we put on serving the customer," he says. "It is all about the customers, period! And only what they want, not what the self-promoting agents and brokerage companies want, they could care less about them, they just want good service, nothing more and nothing less, So that's what we give them! It a new way of doing business, a total new way of thinking."

In other words, there are no star agents in his brokerage who promote their own names or expertise; agents serve consumers, period, no matter what listings consumers are interested in. Unlike other brokerages, agents aren't allowed to self-promote; but he says his agents aren't paid on salary either.

"If you have been an experienced real estate agent for more than five years, you can't work for us, you're too (sic) far gone," says Escoffery. "And even if you are just the janitor or the receptionist at our company, you need to hold a real estate license and be a realtor, even if you are not selling homes."

He explains, "We are the only real estate company in Atlanta I know of that will not hesitate to fire a top producing agent. Even if you are the top producer of the office, if you miss treat (sic) a customer and you're gone that day, period!"

Escoffery says his company is a full-service brokerage. He is derisive of discount companies and says that people who rebate to buyers are essentially cheating homesellers. "All the Internet companies come between the realtor and customer, my whole goal is to drive every last one of them out of business," says Escoffery.

Then why promote AtlantaHomeView as a search engine and not a brokerage? And what about those broken links that others have complained about? "We are a search engine for houses, says Escoffery. "We don't force you to use us. Outbound links don't give us credit -- they are negative going outbound. We don't need permission to link to a site. Google doesn't ask permission. Google doesn't say they are the #1 advertiser on the web -- they say they are a search engine."

If other people's links are negative, why have them on the site? "We don't mind sending them to other real estate companies, like Progressive. We say go interview with other people. We recommend that they go to listing appointments with other agents. They will come back to us. We are servicing clients with agents and we have a different way of approaching it. We don't refer business. When you hit an inquiry and an agent would have answered you, they have all the information on the listing."

He says, "We are coming up on the radar, and we've been catching private detectives trying to find out what we're doing. We are going to focus on the customer; we could care less about spies. They (other brokers) can get off their butts and keep these fake sites back. They are a major source of spam. They are scraping the database to put on their site and they're selling it to another site. Where do you think all the spam comes from?"

"Framing should be outlawed, through. We have a major problem with people framing our site," complains Escoffery.

He also has nothing but contempt for companies that offer rebates to buyers. "You are really saying this is a kickback. He's spending an extra 1 percent that has nothing to do with the cost of the house."

He warns, "They have the rudder in to make the turn; they are now looking under the radar, and we are being covered up by the fake real estate sites. Realtor.com is the only legit site but they're poisoned now because of that IPO crap. They wrecked a good thing. It could have been great, but I can't risk it; we are not waiting around. I was fighting for IDX and I'm confident the system and numbers speak for themselves. The other companies -- as soon as they start tinkering, and accept VC (venture capital) money, they aren't about customers anymore. All they can say is "Let's wreck Realtors' lives.""

So who brings in listings for AtlantaHomeViews? "We don't concentrate on listings, we are mostly a buyer's brokerage. We do listings, but we don't do discount listings. If someone wants to list with us, it will be comparable to other brokers. No rebates, that ought to be against the law."

So how does AtlantaHomeView plan to make it without promoting the expertise of their agents? "Buyers don' t care about agents. Sellers want to know how fast can you sell it and what are you going to get for it. The agent is irrelevant. You don't see pilots competing to get you to take their flight. You don't see the mechanic fly the airplane. Agents are trying to market themselves and the company is not doing anything. You have to close the sale and who's answering the marketing calls. What is the company doing? The customer is suffering, and they aren't doing anything. The agent pays for the postcards to mail around the country, and the company's logo is all over town and the people who come to us are crying. They say they followed everything the company told him to do, and now he's in bankruptcy."

As for competitors and their complaints? "They are not concerned that we are a brokerage. We don't give leads to our agents. The company and agents are all one in the same. We don't call anyone a lead here. It's a $25 fine. These are customers with requests and are to be handled as such. We are one big team. If you call on a listing at Coldwell, someone calls that agent. Here, they all serve the customer."

"We give customers what they want even if we have to send them to another company to get it. For example, if a seller insists on listing his home over-priced, we send them to and agent who specializes in homes that don't sell over at Coldwell Banker; If they want to list it for a discounted commission, we send them to an agent at RE/MAX who is willing to work for free," says Escoffery. "You can quote me on that."