<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>518795-00126</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Received Date:</b></TD> <TD>10/21/2005 3:40:27 PM</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Organization:</b></TD> <TD>Shorewood Realtors</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Commenter:</b></TD> <TD>Rosemary, </TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>State:</b></TD> <TD>CA</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/> In my practice as a realtor I negiotate my commission each time I work with a seller and a buyer. My clients all know that commissions are set and that they can negiotate a fair commission with there agent. So for the government to make the case that Real Estate is not competative is asounding to me. The FTC allows the merger of oil firms, telecommunication firms down to a small number of providers. So small there really is no choice. Yet they want to challenge Realtors when there are are over a million realtors for a Buyer or Seller to choose from. Furthermore, the MLSs are cooperative and are not public utilites. I cannot image the DOJ to make General Motors or other large companies available to anyone without establishing fair criteria for access. That fair criteria is set in NAR's ILD policy and provides a win for consumers and realtors. </body> </HTML>