Inman News reports today about a new website on real estate competition. Here is the government’s website.

All this government money spent on combatting the real estate profession is misplaced. Why not go after the health care industry, which has a far greater impact on more Americans?

When I buy a house, I know how much the fees are going to be. When I go to the doctor, neither the doctors nor the staff HAVE ANY IDEA how much my visit costs.

Seriously. When I went to physical therapy and asked whether I could pay cash, the woman was flabbergasted; she stammered that they had “something called a ‘self-pay'” option, but nobody used it.

Why not advocate for transparency and competition in health care? Realtors are among the most competitive professionals I know. Health care – not so much.

Quick math:

If there are 6 million home sales (which is mighty optimistic), and there are 303 million Americans – who is harmed more?

Update 11 October 2007:

Jay has good review of the site’s merits and some of its inherent shortcomings.
Ardell at RCG weighs in as well.
real/diaBlog has good commentary as well that makes me wonder – in light of the following numbers locally regarding the “agent bubble” – if 500 agents haven’t done a single transaction all year – isn’t part of competition that many will fail?

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