Real Estate Expert Makes Predictions for Evolving Industry

Real Estate Expert Makes Predictions for Evolving Industry: "The real estate industry may be in dire straits, but Jeremiah Thompson, a former real estate broker and owner of Real Estate Client Referrals (http://www.realestateclientreferrals.com/), views the housing crisis in a different light. To this industry expert, the low transaction numbers represent a fresh opportunity for those who work within the industry to call for much-needed change. And Thompson believes that such a real-estate revolution could shift the power and control from agents to buyers and sellers instead. That's because people are becoming aware and wary of the wheeling and dealing of brokers, and are waking up to the idea that solutions exist, he says.

'Agents have had a monopoly on buyers for the past 20 years,' Thompson says. 'They have exclusive access to the local multiple listing services (MLS), and this allows them to control access to the majority of home buyers. Since MLS organizations are private and not governed by state or federal laws, it's been up to each MLS organization to establish its own rules for membership, access and sharing of information. In essence, your local MLS could decide to let homeowners list homes directly, bypassing an agent. They could also decide to let buyers have direct access to homeowners with listings.'"