Checked out trulia.com yet? And yes HP'ers, the end of the MLS, the NAR and the realtor profession is fast approaching...

So much you can do on this site - it's like a MLS on steroids. Here's a look at the 1000+ foreclosures in Scottsdale just for fun!

If you want, pick one out, maybe your realtor or mortgage broker's pre-foreclosure home, and now you can even take a walk down the street with google earth. It'd be cool if you could also knock on the virtual door, go inside and submit a low-ball offer, that's phase 2 I guess...

I love the internets and the google. Bunch of tubes and wires, but it's magic and it's gonna get rid of the 6%'ers once and for all. You'll still have "housing helpers" but at $10 an hour or so.

Thanks to Diana at CNBC for pushing me there - I meant to cruise the site earlier never got around to it, being a zillow fan and all.

Wouldn't it be great if google simply bought trulia and zillow and became the dominant and free realtor-killer we've needed? Hopefully they'll figure it out soon. Goodbye MLS. Goodbye NAR. Hello google.

And then the REIC-advertising-supported newspapers started laying off their staffs

What's gonna disappear first, having been disintermediated by the internet, discredited by their lies and distortion, and absolutely crushed by the housing crash...

Realtors or Newspapers?

Well, now we know why the MSM were such active cheerleaders of the housing bubble at the time - look no further than their REIC-driven and desperately needed ad revenues which have now gone kaput.

Now we just need to figure out why the f*cked up so bad on Iraq.

Paper scratches 40 jobs - Soft real estate market impacts ad revenue

A steep but cyclical decline in real estate advertising has forced The Bakersfield Californian to eliminate 40 positions, 10 of them through layoffs, company President and CEO Richard Beene announced Tuesday.

Between 2004 and 2006, The Californian enjoyed strong profits largely because of an "exploding real estate market," Beene said. But recently, real estate agents, home builders and others in the industry have scaled back their advertising, he said.

The real estate market is not expected to rebound until 2009 at the earliest, he said.

Ramen Eaters continue to blame the messenger - watch the goobers take on 60 minutes here

Frankly, I feel sorry for the ramen eaters. You can tell they're getting to the breaking point now.

This realtor defense comes from a realtor marketing firm. I guess they're getting hungry too. Got Ramen?

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Do real estate clerks now (finally) understand what is happening to the housing market, and to their jobs and future prospects?

Or are they really as dumb, clueless and naive as they seem to be?

6%, FSBO, illegal restraint of trade, and why the MLS, NAR and real estate clerks are doomed

Realtors, especially those blowhard "power closers" and "mega-producers", so full of themselves as they generally are, claim they're worth their 6% because homes sold by a real estate clerk sell for more than FSBO homes, because of their smarts, their good looks, their hustle, their "local knowledge", whatever they can spew to convince you of their worth.

And I don't disagree with the fact that homes sell for more using a real estate clerk - I'd bet on it that homes sold by real estate clerks sell for more (before you subtract their 6%).

Why?

It's called "restraint of trade". It's called the MLS monopoly.

If you try to sell your home in today's anti-capitalistic NAR/MLS world, buyers can't find sellers easily unless the home is on the local central database, the MLS.

But what happens when a new, improved, more efficient, nationwide, agnostic "MLS" finally comes to fruition (hello google! cleanup on aisle 3!)?

You got it - real estate clerks go away, FSBO homes sell for just as much if not more than realtor sold homes, and the days of 6% go away, big time.

Yes, craigslist, ebay, gumtree, fsbo.com, zillow and the likes are helping defeat the evil NAR/MLS. But we need a dominant and free central database. Google is it. And watch them buy zillow soon.

Until then, if you're going to sell your home, find a way to get it onto the MLS for the lowest possible cost, and be done with it. And tell real estate clerks that try to convince you otherwise that their days are numbered, they're being disintermediated, and they can stick their 6% where the sun don't shine.