The era of transparency

Want to buy a car, a book, a new computer, travel or trade stocks efficiently (with minimum commission)? Go on the web. The internet has become the crystal-clear fish bowl in which you can see where real price levels are at. Now try to do the same with selling or buying real-estate, it won’t work. You’ll only get a murky picture at best, compliment of the National Association of Realtors. Under the guise of preserving their business monopoly and juicy commissions, this entity is one of the last bastions of institutionalized opacity, and because it only promotes a fractional picture of its business, its members don’t even know that their organization is driving their business into paralysis and contributing markedly to this country’s current recession. Time to wake-up “Realtors,” give up you isolationism, dare to reveal some useful data, expose yourself to the changing world and show us that you can compete in the open!