<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>518795-00074</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Received Date:</b></TD> <TD>10/20/2005 10:07:57 AM</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Organization:</b></TD> <TD>Northeast Florida MLS, Inc.</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Commenter:</b></TD> <TD>stephan, ron</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>State:</b></TD> <TD>FL</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/> From my perspective, the new policy is a win-win for consumers and REALTORS&reg;. It works for consumers because it gives home sellers a choice whether to permit marketing of their property on the Internet and in selecting an MLS member with whom they want to work. It allows them to "opt-in" and have their property displayed on other brokers' Web sites even if they are working with a broker who does not participate in sharing his listings for display by his competitors. And it works for REALTORS® because it gives us the right to control where our listings are displayed on the Internet. I m not even sure why this is an issue. While I respect the right of our brokers to do business with whomever they want on an individual basis, all of our brokers have opted in to Internet display since April 1995. We have listing data on local state and national websites. We provide every one of our member licensees free web presences and we have over 400 customized sites and probably even more that we don t even know about. </body> </HTML>