Online real estate agents get equality with traditional brokers
In a win for online discount real estate brokers, the Justice Department and the National Association of Realtors announced a settlement Tuesday that will let Internet brokers use the same for-sale home listings used by traditional bricks-and-mortar brokers.
The Justice Department says the proposed antitrust settlement will create more competition among traditional and discount brokers, while giving consumers more choices.
“Today’s settlement prevents traditional brokers from deliberately impeding competition,” says Deborah Garza, deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s antitrust division.
The settlement is encouraging to online real estate firms such as Redfin, a Seattle-based start-up that CEO Glenn Kelman calls “the E-Trade of real estate brokers.” Before the settlement, Kelman says he wasn’t even sure that Redfin would continue to exist. Now, though, there’s potential for growth for his firm and others, he predicts.
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