NAR CEO on Subprime, Consumers and Realtor.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- Dale Stinton, CEO for the National Association of Realtors, on Wednesday addressed some aggressive new initiatives planned by the trade group and its affiliated Realtor.com property-search site, and also discussed the subprime lending debacle.

Stinton, who spoke at the Real Estate Connect San Francisco real estate conference, said, "If there ever was a case study for banks staying out of real estate it's the subprime market." He also said that the subprime situation is an example of the "inevitability of an open society," "of going too far, too fast," and "of liquidity in the marketplaces. We're not so proud of the fact that some (homeowners) now are struggling and might be losing their homes or going into foreclosure."

He noted that the association's directors approved a multi-million-dollar investment in a new technology enterprise (see related article) and that the association is also planning to reach out more to consumers through a Web site and other efforts.

Stinton acknowledged that NAR-affiliated Realtor.com "is playing catch up" with some other sites though the site is evolving technologically and "once we catch up we're not going to fall behind again."

He was mum about the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against NAR and bashed the "60 Minutes" news segment on real estate commissions as more entertainment than news.

Joel Singer, president of real estate business services for the California Association of Realtors trade group, said during an earlier session at the conference that Realtor groups are moving in the right direction when it comes to multiple listing service reform.

"It's absurd that there are 800 MLSs. It imposes cost and it imposes technological inefficiencies that ultimately are going to be opening opportunities for other competitors, frankly."

"I do think the national organization is getting there," he said, and the state association is working toward MLS reform, too.

Singer acknowledged that there are obstacles. "The brokerage industry to a large degree has ceded too much power to the agents. Once you have entrenched power ... more importantly, once you have entrenched economic power -- the economics are that the MLSs actually have more funding than the organized real estate itself -- it becomes very difficult to overcome that."

Rich Barton, founder of real estate valuation and marketing site Zillow.com, shared the stage with Stinton and said he envisions the real estate marketplace will become like a public market in Seattle -- "I see an old-style marketplace formed, a city market like Pike Place Market. I actually dug up an old photo -- Pike Place Market at the turn of the last century. People were gesticulating. People were buying things. People were gossiping. Negotiations were happening. Big billboards were advertising things above the marketplace. That's the picture I have in my head."

He also said that he believes that Apple's iPhone represents an era of new mobile innovation, and that Zillow plans to roll out mobile tools. "This could be the shot heard round the world for the next era," he said.

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