

Upstream supporters defend their mission to go “upstream” with some reasoning that doesn’t make sense to many: What is the cost to consumers and smaller brokerage operators of consolidation and “upstream” management practice? My prediction is that large-scale brokerage gets bigger and more powerful, and that will lead to major shifts in how real estate is sold in this country.Įconomists call market control by a few big operators an “oligopoly.” Is that beneficial to anyone other than the big real estate brokerage holding companies and their shareholders? What does consolidation and industry efficiency bring to the table? Corporate shareholders’ money can be used to purchase and consolidate many small real estate brokers into a few aggregated mega-operators for economic efficiency and gain. Unless these executives have sold at least a few homes, how can they understand the real estate brokerage business - and how can they pretend to be qualified to reshape it?
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Many of the top executives operating real estate holding corporations have never sold even one home. What is the relationship and extent of cooperation between Upstream, Realtors Property Resource (RPR) and NAR? I haven’t read a clear explanation of that yet. Where and how do non-Upstream member brokers, agents and the public benefit from Upstream and its initiatives? I don’t think we’ve been told. Many small brokers see Upstream’s efforts as an attempt to protect and enhance selected interests, not the industry’s interests or the public’s interests. Here is what we have been told: (Limited) news about Upstream states that it is driven by “public interest.”īut where and how does public interest intersect with self-interest?

Many of us would like to know more about who/what Upstream is, what it intends to do and what effects that may have on everyone in our industry.

It has been stated in some online media that Upstream could be good for everyone. Many of us in real estate are reading about something that we don’t understand.
