Remax Shuts Down Its Relocation Business

Remax International has closed its Relocation Business because their agents are confused about the referral fees their own company charged for the leads. The president of Remax International, Vinnie Tracey, admits that their own internal systems were confusing their members. Their website is also confusing...it still has buttons for Relocation, and there is no indication that they have gotten out of this business. It makes one wonder if they are just inefficient at updating their website, or if they are intentionally trying to give the impression that they are still in business, when they are not.

The corporate relocation business, in general, has been cannibalized by the very corporations who want relocation services. The motivation for professional real estate people to work with corporate transferees has been diminished by the corporations taking so much of the available commissions. However, it is still a viable business for those who know how to manage it properly.

Update: Arizona vs. Zillow

After the State of Arizona issued a cease and desist to Zillow, there has been a flurry of activity in the AZ Legislature. Several bills have been introduced to allow these types of "guestimating" websites without licensing as appraisers. Arizona re-iterated that it would not allow Zillow to operate without proper licensing last week, but state representatives have written proposed legislation to allow them to operate without being considered appraisers.

I still have trouble with any state trying to validate Zillow and other sites like them as professional appraisers. Their sites continue to be very unreliable for placing proper values on real estate. States should ignore them and not give them any creedence because they really can be harmful to buyers and sellers of real estate, especially in markets with volatile pricing over the past few years.

My guess is that the legislature will be lobbied hard to allow them to continue operating without appraisal licenses.

Arizona makes Zillow Cease and Desist

I am torn about the state of Arizona making Zillow stop its online "appraisal" service. The state has said that because Zillow is not a licensed appraiser in the state, it must cease and desist marketing in Arizona. This bothers me because it implies that Arizona thinks that Zillow is a real appraiser! NOT! I don't like the idea of the state validating that idea; Zillow is like Wikipedia...just because someone thinks they know what is true doesn't mean that it is...Zillow's opinions of value on their website continue to be wildly inaccurate. Sellers and Buyers beware! Do not rely on any website for pricing your home for sale or for making an offer. Please do yourself a favor and hire a professional Realtor to represent you; that investment in expertise will pay off for you.

"Public" MLS?

I read that some are proposing a "public" MLS. What I think they mean is that they want a place on the internet where they can view every single property for sale. This is pretty much a done deal already. There are numerous websites that contain a large percentage of them already, and there will be more soon.

Most people don't know that a true MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is much more than a list of homes for sale. It is also an efficient way of allowing the listing agent or company to be an aggressive marketer of those homes for the sellers. Without that, an MLS is nothing more than a bunch of classified ads. Because of the rules and "exclusive right to sell" aspect of the MLS, a Realtor is assured getting paid for his or her efforts for marketing when the home sells. This allows the lister the ability and motivation to market that property to the world. If those rules go away, listing agents and companies will not be compelled to market the properties as aggressively; they will want to keep the information harder to get so buyers could only get the details from that agent or company. Buyers would lose, Sellers would lose, and the whole real estate sales process would take a giant step backwards to the 1950s.

Anyone who advocates opening the MLS to everyone without maintaining the rules or exclusive listing concept, is an advocate for an inefficient and chaotic real estate process.

For further discussion on this topic, scroll down to read my post titled: "Realty Reality - Continued."

Banks in Real Estate Lending- Supreme Court Ruling

The Supreme Court ruled the other day that subsidiaries of national banks that are real estate lenders, do not have to comply with the state laws for lenders. This creates a dual standard: those local lenders must comply with state licensing laws and fees, while those national bank subsidiaries don't. Not fair, in my opinion. If states have the right to create their own regulations, any entity operating there should have to play by the same rules. Does this open the door for banks to now have real estate brokerages that don't have to be licensed in the states where they operate? Do their employees not have to be real estate licensees like other practitioners in the state? Big can of worms, in my mind. Your thoughts?