Department of Justice and NAR Suit may Drive Brokers Out of MLS

The first session of the Real Trends Gathering of Eagles was the "Billionaire's Club" meeting. This is only for those owners of companies that sold more than $1 Billion in real estate in the past year. Steve Murray, our host, started out the meeting with some personal opinions and observations about issues in the industry.

Topic #1: NAR and DOJ lawsuit. The DOJ's point of view is simple; it believes that the broker should have no right to opt out of the MLS. The NAR and Steve Murray conversely believe in the fundamental right of the broker to advertise where ever and when ever they want. Steve then went on to suggest that if member brokers of the MLS are forced by the DOJ to comply with posting everything to the MLS without choice, brokers would leave the MLS system. He contends that industry members would find new and creative ways to advertise their inventory without MLS. Steve also reported that the DOJ said "Brokers will never leave the MLS." With that comment, the room was filled with cynical laughter...the people in the room were those decision-makers for the most successful real estate companies in the US.

This echoes my writings regarding this subject last year; if the government wants to stick its nose into the MLS structure, the MLS structure will fail and the industry will find other ways to fulfill the needs of their companies and their customers.

Topic #2: Market conditions , and Topic #3: Valuations of Brokerages and the landscape for acqusitions. I will address these in future posts.