"First Brokers, Then Investment Bankers"

Bashing Brokers... Did you see Alan Murray's column in last week's Wall Street Journal, "How Long Can Middlemen Hang On?" ( Sep 28, 2005) You couldn't miss the inflammatory graphic showing a house-shaped cake on a platter with a chunk missing.

Below the "house" is a threatening carving knife (not a cake server!) and a little man hefting (stealing?) the missing piece away. Whoa.

Murray describes the saga of selling his "inflated" house in Washington, DC, and buying an "inflated" house in Fairfield County, Connecticut. And he bashes brokers for charging 5% commissions, even though house prices have skyrocketed in recent years.

"It's remarkable that in today's economy, this classic middleman business model survives -- and not just survives, but flourishes, like a hardy breed of insect. ... In an age when information is ubiquitous, it's hard to understand how they continue to rake in such fees." Really.

He concludes the article by guessing that "change will come eventually." And, "Once that happens, attention can turn to another remaining member of the Overpaid Middleman's Club: Investment bankers."

Hmm. Normally, Murray is one of my heroes. But my advice would be, "Alan, don't hold your breath. You are underestimating the personal aspect of real estate transactions. People, not information, move the real estate process forward."

Every night hundreds of thousands of real estate professionals go to sleep dreaming of ways to get their clients to like them. It's the exact reverse for adolescents who go to sleep dreaming of ways to get their parents NOT to like them. Guess what? They both succeed.

NASCAR Real Estate Update... Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman, as principal team owners, plan to enter a new Texas Instruments-sponsored car in the 2006 Nextel Cup. Old NFL rival Joe Gibbs, whose team won the Cup in 2002, will supply engines, equipment and technology to Staubach. Go, Roger!

-- Peter Pike