Time for Alacarte Real Estate Pricing

    The cable TV industry has been under pressure for years to unbundle their services. Why- as consumers should we be forced to pay for religious channels, shopping channels,wrestling,reality TV shows or other channels that we could care less about.

   Likewise, why as sellers or buyers of real estate should we be forced to pay for services that we don't want or need. The internet has given consumers access to virtually the same information that realtors traditionally have had exclusive access to. Sellers have now been empowered to obtain "estimates" of fair market value ( traditional realtors call it a CMA) on numerous sites,advertise online for free,etc. Buyers have been empowered to search for homes at any number of sites - like public access MLS sites,Realtor.com, Zillow,Trulia, Domania,Google base,Yahoo Real Estate,etc. - that essentially allows them to do for themselves what a Buyer's agent has traditionally done.

Rather than being escorted by a tour guide, over 80% of buyers start their home search on line....So why should they pay a full commission when they are doing perhaps 50-75% of the work ?

   The consumer WILLhave the final word, and commissions and service WILL become "unbundled" whether the "good ole boy/girl network and the NAR like it or not.