CONTACT LENSES, automobiles, cases of wine: What do these have in common? All are goods that once could be purchased only from shops, or anyway with the help of actual people. Now, all of these things can, at least in theory, be purchased online. And all have, at one point, been the subjects of Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission investigations into whether old-fashioned, "brick and mortar" purveyors are trying to shut out or close down their Internet competitors.
The latest group of salespeople to come under this kind of scrutiny happens to be one that many in the Washington area care about deeply: real estate agents. Not only have the 6 percent commissions earned by purveyors of real estate begun to seem outlandish in an era of exponential growth in housing prices, there is evidence, nationally, of local real estate agents trying to preserve their high fees by preventing or hampering online and discount competitors. This month, the Justice Department stopped just short of suing the National Association of Realtors for writing a rule that would have allowed agents to keep their properties off what are known as "virtual office" Web sites, which buyers like because they offer a large rebate on commissions. The spokesman for one, Ziprealty.com, says it tries to "allow clients to have the same experience online that they would have if they went to an office."
For the moment, the mainstream real estate agents have gone back to examine their policies again. But the Justice Department is right to have pursued the case: There is no reason why the cost savings and productivity increases that the Internet has brought to many other industries -- and that have often been passed on to customers -- should somehow fail to touch the real estate industry, too.
