<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>518795-00160</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Received Date:</b></TD> <TD>10/22/2005 1:33:28 AM</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Organization:</b></TD> <TD>NAR, CAR</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Commenter:</b></TD> <TD>Giorgianni, John</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/> I want to point out to the commission that the real estate industry is the most competitive industry I have ever worked in. In my area there are over 15,000 real estate agents chasing 17,000 deals a year. Do the math. Unless you are very good, you are going broke. My average commission has dropped over the last ten years from 3% to about 2.25%. That is a 25% reduction, so don't think for a minute that it is not competitive out there; Also, it burns me to no end that work very hard to get listings, and then everyone and their uncle with a website tries to generate leads from my listing and then sell them back to me at 25-35% of what I make. Let them go out and get their own listings. The MLS is a cooperative of brokers designed to foster cooperation among ourselves to sell each others listings---not to let everyone with a computer try to take a piece of the action because they can make a website. If some brokers do not mind that, fine, let them allow anyone to promote their listings as someone else.s. But not me. If I take the listing, it should be mine to advertise as I see fit, not as some government agency tells me. The MLS has been around for a long time because it works to sell homes. It promotes cooperation amoung agents to sell listings. Why should someone with a computer two thousand miles from here generate leads on the internet and then sell them back to me. That is not cooperation, it is thievery. Let the Realtors govern themselves as they always have. We do not need a government agency telling us how to run business in the private sector --- they do not belong here making the rules. </body> </HTML>