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Freak or Freedom: Realtors Wearing Capes?
Many of you no doubt read the book Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner.  I read it the other year.  It was a bestseller and caused quite a buzz and a stir when it was first published.  The book is an interesting and entertaining read  that discusses some controversial idea, among them that legalized abortion helped reduce violent crime in the 1990s.
Most relevant for us in the real estate industry, the authors compared real estate agents with the Ku Klux Klan! 
I don't know about you, but I was flat out, downright offended by such a shocking statement.
The gist of the author's analysis was that real estate agent's have a significant information advantage over the consumer due to their knowledge of the real estate market and they exploit this information asymmetry to the detriment of their clients.
In comparing this to the Ku Klux Klan, the Freakonomics authors state that when the Ku Klux Klan's secret rituals and passwords were exposed, they lost much of their fear factor and were not as intimidating.  They state that with more real estate information available to consumers via the internet, real estate agents can no longer hoard the information and intimidate consumers to ... more

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