RESPRO Attracts Top Industry Players To Annual Conference The Real Estate Service Providers Council, a group that is emerging as one of the industry's more important organizations, is having its annual conference in Washington at the end of this month with much of its focus on the blurring of lines between banking, insurance and brokerage. Much of the conversation this year is expected to concentrate on the new Financial Services Act and the likelihood that banks will be allowed to own real estate brokerages. One of the meeting's more controversial sessions, however, is likely to be a meeting between Arne Christenson, senior vice president for regulatory policy at Fannie Mae, and Mike House, director FM Watch. FM Watch is a self-styled watch dog group that believes Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are far exceeding their roles as government-sponsored enterprises and either should restrict their actions or lose their federal backing. Legislation has been proposed to cut loose the GSEs, but no action has been taken yet. RESPRO historically has managed to bring together businesses with seemingly separate interests, allowing them to explore for common ground - not only for areas of cooperation but also areas of competition. According to President Sue Johnson, RESPRO gives broker-owners, franchisers, mortgage lenders, title companies, home builders and other providers of home services an opportunity to "network with potential business alliance partners and find out about the latest marketplace trends." Speaking at the April 25-27 meeting this year are competitors from a number of disciplines, including: Michael Buckman, president and COO of Homestore.com. Homestore.com has the largest number of property for sale ads on the Internet and also the most traffic. In the past three months, however, Homestore's stock has dropped from more than $130 to the mid $20s. Many of those attending the RESPRO meetings are likely to either own or recently sold Homestore shares. Bryan Mistele, general manager of HomeAdvisor Technologies Inc. HomeAdvisor, the chief rival of Homestore, recently was spun into a joint venture between Microsoft, Freddie Mac, Bank of America and other industry players. HomeAdvisor executives maintain that while Homestore has more property ads, HomeAdvisor actually delivers more business to the real estate community. Also speaking will be: William Seidman, former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Seidman is currently publisher of Bank Director magazine and is a frequent commentator on CNBC - the cable business channel. Rebecca Holtz, director of the HUD's RESPA enforcement effort. Holtz is one of the key architects of the 1998 joint report to Congress recommending legislative reform of RESPA and the Truth in Lending Act. She also has helped draft policies regarding payments to mortgage brokers. High on RESPRO's agenda this year is a review of why real estate business alliances succeed or fail in the current environment. Sessions also will look at the trend in real estate brokerage to establish post-transaction relationships with consumers. Participants also will be learning about the on-line consumer market and how to attract and keep customers. For more information see: http://www.respro.org |
