Realtors: We Overcounted Home Sales for Five Years

lol, makes all those realtor association commercials seem all the funnier. Trust a realtor? Yeah, right after a used car salesmen and a lawyer.

housing market is saturated like crazy 3 houses for sale on a 16 house street

The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is as corrupt as they come. It is the classic protection racket/scheme. They have been sued (successfully) in the past, but nothing ever changes. Eliminate the MLS and eliminate at least 1/2 of what causes housing bubbles and artificially high housing prices. The federal government is the other 1/2 of the problem.

Quote from dealgate : The MLS (Multiple Listing Service) is as corrupt as they come. It is the classic protection racket/scheme. They have been sued (successfully) in the past, but nothing ever changes. Eliminate the MLS and eliminate at least 1/2 of what causes housing bubbles and artificially high housing prices. The federal government is the other 1/2 of the problem.

Do they list false closing price or what's the problem? Can you elaborate on that?

Quote from kyotuosa : Do they list false closing price or what's the problem? Can you elaborate on that?

The MLS is basically a union for RE agents. If you don't join or use them you are blackballed. This essentially eliminates any meaningful attempt for "fsbo" (for sale by owner) to ever be a threat to this powerhouse of corruption. Or any other selling avenue for that matter. It is a monopoly. You could call this good business practice I suppose as their network is world-wide. But again, they have been sued and lost on this very issue. They are large enough that they make all the rules regarding RE. The MLS paves the way for anti-trust, price-fixing and inflated pricing which is rampant in the RE industry.

Quote from dealgate : The MLS is basically a union for RE agents. If you don't join or use them you are blackballed. This essentially eliminates any meaningful attempt for "fsbo" (for sale by owner) to ever be a threat to this powerhouse of corruption. Or any other selling avenue for that matter. It is a monopoly. You could call this good business practice I suppose as their network is world-wide. But again, they have been sued and lost on this very issue. They are large enough that they make all the rules regarding RE. The MLS paves the way for anti-trust, price-fixing and inflated pricing which is rampant in the RE industry.

BINGO! It's also a serious advantage for them, against your one house you have for sale. If you don't get your house into the MLS system, you really narrow your field of buyers to nearly nothing.

Except there ARE some flat-rate realtors, that will at least place your listing on MLS for a one-time fee. That will allow a person to FSBO, BUT have the advantage of listing on MLS so more people can "see it". Then again, if a agent see's your house on MLS and thinks your house might fit for one of their clients, they'll most likely demand a fee from you before they'd even be willing to show it. Said fee to be paid IF their buyer buys and closes. Around here, they demand 3.5% in a case like this. It's 7% if they do ALL the work. It's 10% if it's bare land (which is harder to sell I'll admit).

Quote from dealgate : The MLS is basically a union for RE agents. If you don't join or use them you are blackballed. This essentially eliminates any meaningful attempt for "fsbo" (for sale by owner) to ever be a threat to this powerhouse of corruption. Or any other selling avenue for that matter. It is a monopoly. You could call this good business practice I suppose as their network is world-wide. But again, they have been sued and lost on this very issue. They are large enough that they make all the rules regarding RE. The MLS paves the way for anti-trust, price-fixing and inflated pricing which is rampant in the RE industry.

I am not seeing why this is shocking...Ithought it's a common sense that "fsbo" would be working in disadvantage.
Imo, the idea of "fsbo" is contradicting. The buyer is trying to find a cheaper property by going through fsbo and the seller is trying earn more by bypassing the agents.
So, you end up with cheap buyer would is looking for crazy bargain and seller who really want their MLS value without paying realtor fee, seems like a recipe for failure anyway.
I thought MLS serve the purpose of letting public seeing the market trend, which should prevent price-fixing?

Quote from kyotuosa : I am not seeing why this is shocking...Ithought it's a common sense that "fsbo" would be working in disadvantage. Imo, the idea of "fsbo" is contradicting. The buyer is trying to find a cheaper property by going through fsbo and the seller is trying earn more by bypassing the agents. So, you end up with cheap buyer would is looking for crazy bargain and seller who really want their MLS value without paying realtor fee, seems like a recipe for failure anyway.

Or it could be that a fsbo buyer is looking to avoid dealing with douchebag lying, thieving, deceiving realtors that trounce you all around town showing you anything and everything just to get a sale. And it could be that a fsbo seller realizes that with the advent of the internet those same douchebag lying, thieving, deceiving realtors are largely unneeded for most people.

Their lobby is hell bent on keeping their monopoly for as along as possible and destroying any competition. They are obviously corrupt, as it is in their own self interest to mis-state numbers in order to prop up a crumbling housing market, all in the name of the mighty dollar. They gave kickbacks to home inspectors and appraisers, while blacklisting ones who wouldn't play along, again, just to make sales and increase their bank accounts.

Quote : I thought MLS serve the purpose of letting public seeing the market trend, which should prevent price-fixing?

Nope. It is viewable to the public in a very limited way, but it is not open to the public. If I want to sell my home I can't just put it up on MLS. I have to use one of those buckets of flop sweat called a RE agent to have it listed, and they ultimately decide what is actually listed. This also means they can manipulate the data and how it is presented.

Who's more full of shit? The NAR or the BLS(BS)?

Tonight on Dateline....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/bus...story.html

Quote : Data released Tuesday showed that seasonally adjusted housing prices have reached a post-bubble low, as the minor surge that began in 2009 fizzled, to be followed by the almost continuous slide of the past 18 months. The housing bust, in other words, appears to be even worse than it was at the nadir of the recession. “The trend is down and there are few, if any, signs in the numbers that a turning point is close at hand,” said David M. Blitzer of S&P Indices. “I spent the weekend scratching my head and saying, ‘Isn’t there some good number in here?’ ”

Japan. Blushing with envy.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/256968

The secret's out on phantom bids

Phantom bids can be used by selling agents to spark extra rounds of bidding or to spook potential buyers into rushing or raising offers.

An informal poll of 30 Toronto-area agents taken yesterday by the Star suggests that virtually all believe that some form of phantom bidding exists in the market. More than two-thirds said some kind of structural reform in the way bids were handled was needed to address the problem.