<HTML> <HEAD> <title>WebForm1</title> <meta name="GENERATOR" content="Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 7.1"> <meta name="CODE_LANGUAGE" content="Visual Basic .NET 7.1"> <meta name="vs_defaultClientScript" content="JavaScript"> <meta name="vs_targetSchema" content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisense/ie5"> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content='text/html; charset=UTF-8'> </HEAD> <body > <TABLE id="Table1" cellSpacing="1" cellPadding="1" width="100%" border="0"> <TR> <TD><b>Comment Number:</b></TD> <TD>518795-00185</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Received Date:</b></TD> <TD>10/22/2005 6:15:06 PM</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Organization:</b></TD> <TD>Keller Williams Real Estate</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Commenter:</b></TD> <TD>McCune, Kathleen Boston</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>State:</b></TD> <TD>KS</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Agency:</b></TD> <TD>Federal Trade Commission</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Rule:</b></TD> <TD>Competition Policy and the Real Estate Industry</TD> </TR> <TR> <TD><b>Docket ID:</b></TD> <TD>To Be Added</TD> </TR> <TR> <td colspan='2'>No Attachments</td> </TR> </TABLE> <hr/> <b>Comments:</b><br/><br/> Kathleen Boston McCune&nbsp;&nbsp; To Those Who Are Studying the Competition of The Real Estate Field: 90% of the Agents I know in the Greater Kansas City Area (and I have been actively selling Real Estate for nine + years) have to have an additional career or a husband or wife with a sizable income. Not only are costs to be an Agent high, but the time it takes to sell a house or find a house for a Buyer is at least six weeks from the first meeting to closing. That works out to less than $20.00 an hour which includes all costs associated with being a realtor. Those costs include: 1. A vehicle large enough to load a family of six, $6,000.00 annually 2. Licensing for a two state area (around $1,500.00 annually) 3. MLS fees $300.00 annually 4. Clothing (one of the few professions where jeans are not protocol). $1,000.00 annually 5. 15 hours of education a year required. $450.00 annually 6. Patience of a Saint....Agents seem to have the same reputation of humaneness given Used Car and Drug Salesmen. 7. Sellers expect us to clean their house, help them paint, renovate and still get it sold if they need to do all these things, but refuse to do them. 8. Quarterly list of  NO CALL phone list at $300.00 times 4= $1,200.00 annually 9. Monthly fees to Broker who holds each license: $600.00 annually 10. At 3% commission, split half with my broker, my average earnings come to around $1,100.00 per house sale. I usually only have time to sell four houses a year, what with my other job to make ends meet, so I have yet to make a profit. If this is a profession you intend to attack, I can only say you must be in kahoots with the IRS who are  cleaning up the tax forms by denying a mortgage as a tax deduction on Schedule A . And obviously, the middle class is supposed to go hide somewhere. Also, as far as competition, we have to combat Title companys who offer all the paperwork to homeowners for free to sell their houses by themselves, not to mention the companies who put the FSBO houses on the internet for a fee, (which by the way 90% are sold by us Realtors, sweating in the trenches). And then we have the Bankers trying to do the whole thing by themselves. And the insurance companies have us at the highest for a risk because of our exposure and nerves. Sincerely and accurately given in testimony by: Kathleen Boston McCune <A name=RDACT1></A> </body> </HTML>