SAN FRANCISCO – Typically cheery real estate agents were seething Friday as they discussed the government’s attempts to force them to share home listings – the bread and butter of the real estate business – with Internet-based competitors.
At their annual conference, executives from the National Association of Realtors, which claims to be the largest trade association in the U.S., said they are planning a vigorous fight against a lawsuit filed in September by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department says the association would stifle competition if it goes ahead with a plan to allow members the option of withholding home listings from competitors’ Web sites. Many of those competitors are nontraditional online services, which may “offer better services and lower costs,” the agency said in a statement.
“There’s not another business that is required to give their product to their (competitor) across the street,” said Terry McDermott, the association’s outgoing executive officer. “Apparently, the government thinks the Internet is some magical wonderland.”
The dispute comes as the real estate boom is threatened by rising interest rates. Housing prices in many markets are at all-time highs, and some home buyers and sellers have begun looking for ways to avoid real estate agent fees, usually about 6 percent, by turning to nontraditional brokerage methods.
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