July 30 2018
June 5th was an interesting day in Washington, DC for the real estate industry. The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice held a workshop to gain insight on the competitive environment in real estate.
There are three videos about the workshop that can be viewed as a refresher for:
While there has been much written and discussed about this workshop, one task remains, and it expires on Tuesday.
Your input!
As practitioners who compete every day in world of real estate, it is critical to provide insights to the FTC on how the industry's competitive landscape has been over the last 10 years.
When contemplating your "request for public comment" to the FTC, the following are a few questions to aid in organizing your thoughts:
Every day, brokerages and MLSs confront the competitive environment of providing services to their consumers. FTC is shaded to some of these realities, and comments from practitioners offer a deeper comprehension of how competitive the real estate industry has become over the last 10 years.
My partner at the WAV Group, Marilyn Wilson Lund, wrote an article just prior to the workshop in June, "5 Key Takeaways in Preparation for the FTC/DOJ Workshop." Her research identified that over the last 10 years, the industry has re-invented itself in its response to consumer needs and wants, and in a fair and competitive landscape (link to the report).
Has the availability of the information made the industry better? Absolutely! Is there more to do? Of course there is more to do, and the industry is engaged with initiatives such as RESO, Upstream and The MLS Grid concept to improve the availability and quality of data.
On the other hand, the industry does have its actors who do misbehave. They do hoard data, make the process to gain access to data extremely difficult, or do not abide by policies for data standards. It is here where the industry needs to take a stand before others decide to take their own actions.
Please take a few moments and participate to convey the realities brokerages and MLSs have competing in today's real estate market.
To view the original article, visit the WAV Group blog.