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Learn more about the $8,000 first-time homebuyer tax credit
and FHA loan limits in Illinois and energy-efficient housing tax credits available.

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We feel that REALTOR.com has not been responsive to the needs of REALTORS and that the current relationship between NAR and Move,Inc. (as currently constituted) is not in our interest as REALTORS for the following reasons:

1) Move, Inc. has a long standing pattern of raising fees on REALTORS and charging them exhorbitant fees in comparison with the costs of developing a national real estate listings site. Fees (which yet again are expected to be raised in 2009) are out of line with what other national listing aggregator websites cost their shareholders. Why should we be paying many multiples of what companies like Trulia and Zillow are costing THEIR shareholders for aggregating real estate listings on their sites?

2)After being provided ALL of our listings and photos, they have stripped off all but four, unless REALTORS pay them an annual “enhancement” fee. This effectively takes our clients and holds them hostage until we pay their “fee”. Much of this fee goes right back into “Sales expenses” which are Move,Inc.’s marketing to REALTORS that they MUST have their service. This adds HUGE costs to what is needed for a national website and is NOT acceptable.

3) In a world where many websites offer REALTORS social networking opportunities to connect REALTORS to potential clients, REALTOR.com has been sorely lacking in developing these types of programs.

4) The 2007 10K (released Feb 28, 2008) from Move, Inc. shows STAGGERING General and Administrative Expenses of over Million and Sales expenses of over 8 Million..these expenses are RIDICULOUS given their online properties and a development expense of Million. While we realize that this includes Top Producer and other assets of Move, Inc., that actually makes the ratio of development / Sales, General and Administrative Expense even MORE out of line. We are tired of having NAR tell US to pay for THEIR inefficiency.

We are not against paying for what WE receive. If you want to charge us for “enhancing OUR contact information” then fine. But don’t hold our CLIENTS and CUSTOMERS hostage. That is unconscionable. Many of them don’t know what you are doing to us and if they did, they would find it incredibly offensive.

More importantly, because the National Association of Realtors leased the rights to our web presence to third parties, they put themselves in the position of defending REALTOR.com’s inefficiencies and deficiencies to the general membership for their own financial gain.

We call on NAR to take steps to BUY BACK Realtor.com from Move, Inc. or to buy a controlling interest in Move, Inc. to provide a national listings site for REALTORS at a price that is REASONABLE and RATIONAL. With the current stock price so low, a controlling interest can be purchased at a reasonable price and other assets like TopProducer can be spun off to repay (partially) the investment. This is a strategy that makes SENSE.

Until NAR SERIOUSLY takes up this issue and hears our concerns, we vow to raise awareness, talk to the press, let our clients know what you are up to, and most importantly, we will NOT continue to pay higher and higher fees to cover Move, Inc.s inefficiencies and largess.

We do not do this out of spite. We do this to protect OUR good name and our industry. It only makes sense with Move, Inc’s stock price this low to take these actions. We call on you to address these concerns completely, totally, and immediately.

After you have added your name to this petition an e-mail will be sent to the given address to confirm your signature. Please make sure that your e-mail address is correct or you will not receive this e-mail and your name will not be counted.

http://www.takebackourr.com/the-petition/

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September 27 2008 (LPAC)–Lyndon LaRouche today reiterated that the trillion dollar taxpayers bailout scheme, being peddled by Hank Paulson, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, et al. is doomed to fail. “If the bailout is passed, this will not solve anything. It will trigger Weimar hyperinflation immediately, will bring down the whole banking system, and, contrary to Gordon Brown’s fantasies, will not save the hopelessly bankrupt British banking system.”

LaRouche emphasized, “However, as many people inside Washington and on Wall Street perfectly well know, there is a Plan B. Plan B is my three-step solution, which begins with bankruptcy reorganization, rather than hyperinflationary bailout. First, pass my Homeowners and Bank Protection Act (HBPA). This viable proposal has been out there since Sept. 2007, and everyone serious, who has studied it, knows it will work. Had Congress shown the guts to pass my HBPA in 2007, this crisis would have been averted, and we would have already been on the road to a new, viable international financial order.

“Second, Congress, in coordination with the Fed, must establish a two-tiered credit system. The Fed must immediately increase short-term rates to 4 percent, to send a clear signal that the U.S. government is behind a strong dollar. At the same time, Congress, using its Constitutional authority, must issue trillions of dollars in low-interest credit for earmarked infrastructure projects, in the vital interest of the nation. We need high-speed rail and maglev, nuclear power, water management, new hospitals, repairs on our bridges and roads. These kinds of projects should be financed through capital budgeting, authorized by Congress at 1-2 percent interest.”

LaRouche said, “And at the same time, the United States, Russia, China and India must take the lead in convening a treaty conference to establish a new international financial system, based on fixed exchange rates, along the conceptual lines of what Franklin Roosevelt did in 1944 with the original Bretton Woods System. We can and must put the bankrupt current international financial system through bankruptcy reorganization, and launch, on a global scale, what I have proposed with the domestic capital investment in massive infrastructure.”

LaRouche noted that prominent Italian officials have voiced their support for the convening of such a New Bretton Woods conference, and Russian leaders, including President Medvedev and Prime Minister Putin, have voiced similar support, particularly if the United States takes the lead.

“So no one in good faith,” LaRouche concluded, “can honestly claim that the current bailout scheme on the table of Paulson, Frank and Dodd is the only option. It is not the only option. It is the option of a dark age for civilization. My Plan B is available, is viable, and can and must be acted upon now. This week.”

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The American housing collapse was a major cause of the recession. The housing market is showing new life after three years of falling prices and too much supply. But now there are worries that banks could face big losses next on business properties.

For example, one effect of a weak economy is less demand for office space. As a result, property owners earn less and charge less in rent. This puts pressure especially on owners who borrowed a lot of money.

Easy credit helped fuel an explosion of development. The market hit a high point in two thousand seven.

Now, late payments are growing. Almost three percent of commercial mortgages were reported at least ninety days late between April and June. That was double a year earlier.

One major lender lost more than a billion and a half dollars in the second quarter. Capmark Financial Group said it might seek bankruptcy protection from its creditors. Medium and small banks also face a growing risk.

Banks hold one and a half of the three and a half trillion dollars in debt that supports the commercial real estate market. Housing debt is much higher. Still, around two trillion dollars in commercial mortgages are expected to come due for payment within the next five years.

Commercial properties face two serious problems. One is falling prices — down by one-fourth since two thousand seven. The other is refinancing.

Most commercial real estate loans have terms of ten years or less. They often end with a large payment, a balloon payment, which owners usually refinance. But lower property values and tighter lending requirements mean a harder time getting new loans.

One way to make capital available for new loans is to sell mortgage-backed securities. But since last year there has been little activity in the seven hundred fifty billion dollar market for commercial mortgage securities.

The Federal Reserve recently extended into next year a loan program designed to get investors to buy more securities like these.

The United States is not alone. Commercial rents in Moscow, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mumbai have fallen thirty percent or more.

American housing sales, though, have improved in recent months, helped by lower prices and a tax credit for first-time buyers.

The S&P/Case-Shiller national index of home prices rose in April, May and June. That was the first three-month increase in three years.

And that’s the VOA Special English Economics Report.

(Adapted from a radio program broadcast 11Sep2009)

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