The results are in... and the death of the realtor profession can't come fast enough

HP Poll Results:

realtors are:

Liars	521 (62%)
Conmen	505 (60%)
Thieves	401 (47%)
Immoral	457 (54%)
No longer needed	593 (70%)
Leaches	472 (56%)
Forever discredited	507 (60%)

Votes so far: 837
Poll closed

And then POOF! 100,000 realtors on commission went away. Only 1.3 million left to go...

Buggy whip salesmen. Travel agents. 8-track tape manufacturers. Milli Vanilli fans. And now unneeded realtors on commission.

Buh Bye!

Amid housing woes, trade group forecasts fewer realtors by year-end for first time in a decade

Plummeting stock prices. Mortgage lenders filing for bankruptcy or shutting down. Layoffs at homebuilders and banks. Soaring foreclosures and loan defaults.

Damage from the nation's slumping housing market is evident throughout the economy and permeates financial markets. Add real estate agents to the growing list of victims, although they know few tears will be shed for them.

The National Association of Realtors expects membership rolls to decline this year for the first time in a decade. The group ended 2006 with nearly 1.4 million members – almost double the roughly 716,000 it had in 1997 – but expects 2007 to close with 1.3 million, a drop of more than 4 percent.

Century 21 trying desperately to fend off Redfin and the internet. Good luck with that.

Think someone's a bit paranoid that the internet, and discount commission outfits like Redfin, are about to send them and their 6% packing?

Why use a Century 21 realtor? Because they watch your eyes! Funny, I thought it was because computers look silly in yellow jackets.

Barf.

And I love this hilarious youtube response someone did to Century 21's stupid ad:

60 Minutes report on the NAR's MLS monopoly and the dinosaur "six percenter" realtors (real estate clerks)

Here's the 60 Minutes video link.

Goodbye 6%. Anyone think realtors deserve $30,000 on a $500,000 house? Try $5,000. Or $500. And hello Redfin.

The only value real estate clerks added was getting the house on the MLS. If a discounter can do that, or if the MLS can get disintermediated itself (google?), then there is NO reason to pay a realtor a percentage. Maybe an hourly wage for showing houses, but that's about it.

Victory will be ours. 1.2 million realtors around the US, sorry to say, but you're dinosaurs, and the game is over.

Go find new work.

HousingPANIC Stupid Question of the Day

Is the REALTOR® profession now totally and forever DISCREDITED®?

Ladies and gentlemen, as predicted, I give you Google Housing (Beta)

Oh, man, is this could change the world... My only question for Google is what the hell is taking so long? Could this be more in their sweet spot?

Goodbye ramen eating real estate clerks. Goodbye zillow.com (who Google will buy anyway) . Goodbye Century 21. Goodbye "Mega-Producer" Russ Shaw. Goodbye Re/Max. Goodbye 6%. Goodbye MLS.

And hello Google Housing!

Hello REALTOR disintermediation. Hello efficiency. And hello world - Google Housing will destroy realtors and estate agents around the globe (finally!)

Note - this is only a beta - but should give you a sense of what's to come. Want a tip? Don't be against Google.

REALTOR needs an acronym

R amen

E ating

A lways

L ying

T erribly

O verpaid

R ejects