Deja vu all over again in real estate.

• Author: Rundles, Jeff
• Position: Rundles Wrap-up

THE NEAT THING ABOUT GETTING OLDER--AND, YES, THERE are a few things--is that, occasionally, you come back into style.

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When I was in high school, for instance, I had a Madras patch shirt that was absolutely the coolest thing anyone anywhere had. It's taken more than 35 years, but patch Madras is back. Indeed, most of my wardrobe from my younger days is back, finally in style again.

Of course, one of the negatives about getting older is that my in-style-again shirts and such don't fit anymore, not even close, but at least my long-held belief that they would reemerge fashion-wise came true.

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And I discovered another of my long-held beliefs is re-emerging fashion-wise. The latest buzz in residential real estate circles is that the traditional 6-percent commission and the lock-hold on information enjoyed by the Multiple Listing Service may be coming to an end. In my formative years as a reporter 25-plus years ago, I drew the enmity of the real estate establishment for suggesting that residential real estate commissions were too high--not to mention too fixed--for the services rendered, and that the MLS may represent a restraint of trade.

I got nowhere, of course. The real estate community was, and is, rather powerful politically. All the same, I wasn't necessarily wrong, I was just ahead of my time.

Over the last couple of years the issue has once again been heating up, this time involving some state legislatures and the U.S. Department of Justice. It all started with the National Association of Realtors and its state affiliates trying to limit the access of so-called discount brokers to the MLS. Discounters charge real estate sellers thousands less in fees for a sale by offering few, if any, services, beyond the MLS listing. In several states the political arm of the profession, in an attempt to maintain the status quo, has been successful in passing legislation, called "minimum services" laws, that basically require those utilizing the MLS to offer a broader range of services and, of course, to collect higher fees. The Justice Department has jumped in, filed suit against the NAR and some state affiliates, and everyone involved is arguing that they represent the best interests of the consumer.

Well, I don't want to get involved again in the argument of whether the traditional system employed by the Realtors is restraint of trade and price fixing. I made that argument a quarter of a century ago and I...