<HTML> <HEAD> <title>WebForm1</title> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 7.1"> <meta name="CODE_LANGUAGE" content="Visual Basic .NET 7.1"> <meta name="vs_defaultClientScript" content="JavaScript"> <meta name="vs_targetSchema" content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5"> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content='text/html; charset=UTF-8'> </HEAD> <body > <TABLE id="Table1" cellSpacing="1" cellPadding="1" width="100%" border="0"> <TR> <TD><b>Comment Number:</b></TD> <TD>518795-00003</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Received Date:</b></TD> <TD>9/15/2005 1:22:58 PM</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Organization:</b></TD> <TD>Kenway Mortgage, Inc</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Commenter:</b></TD> <TD>Seastrunk, Ken</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>State:</b></TD> <TD>TX</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Agency:</b></TD> <TD>Federal Trade Commission</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Rule:</b></TD> <TD>Competition Policy and the Real Estate Industry</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Docket ID:</b></TD> <TD>To Be Added</TD> </TR> <TR> <td colspan='2'>No Attachments</td> </TR> </TABLE> <hr/> <b>Comments:</b><br/><br/> If you are truly interested in helping buyers and sellers, I suggest you look somewhere other than the realtors. I am in the mortgage business and have been for the past 20 years. The real culprits are the large relocation companies and the home builders. The large relocation companies tell their relocation people which real estate firm they must use, which mortgage companies to be used and which title company they must use or they do not get their relocation benefits. Then when the realtor gets the relocation client they must pay back a referral fee of approximately 35%. The builders in Texas now have their own mortgage companies. When a buyer comes to them, they tell the buyer they will pay title policy, and other closing costs ONLY IF THEY USE THE BUILDERS MORTGAGE COMPANY. If they buyer wants to shop for the best rate and program, the builder will not pay any closing costs and will not reduce the sales price to be comparable with his price if the buyer used his mortgage company. Please explain to me how this benefits the buyer. Once the buyer has agreed to use the builders mortgage company, how does the buyer know he is getting a competitve rate and closing costs. His ability to shop the market has been taken away from him. The builder can build all of the costs he wants to pay into the sales price which then artificially inflates the price of homes. All of this is a disservice to buyers and sellers. I would appreciate any response you would care to give me. My small business continues to dwindle as I try to fight for a small piece of the pie. </body> </HTML>