The Real Reason The Feds Want To Clip The Real Estate Industry's Commissions
by Blanche Evans
While the National Association of Realtors politely testified at the closed hearings called yesterday by U.S. Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio) that banks will cost consumers more if they are let into real estate sales and management, they little realized they are speaking to deaf ears.
Real estate transfer taxes are already happening in all but 13 states because states have oversight of transfer tax rates for real estate transfers. With federal oversight, it becomes a federal coffer-filler.
Remember, we're talking about a government that is $7.8 trillion in debt. While government distracts the public from its overspending by scaring the public about underfunded Social Security, it has thought of a brilliant way to siphon off some of the $6.75 billion annually paid to the nation's 1.1 million Realtors in commissions.
The trick is creating a new tax without a public outcry. By distracting the public with heroics as it strong-arms Realtors into extinction, the transfer tax will be slipped through on a Congressional housekeeping bill and quietly show up on HUD statements at closing. Consumers will never realize the difference because all they will know, thanks to the trumpeting of Oxley's heroics by The Wall Street Journal, et al, is that consumers are paying less in transactions costs, trimmed sharply by banking fees promised to be lower than commissions paid to Realtors.
Read the FULL STORY->
While the National Association of Realtors politely testified at the closed hearings called yesterday by U.S. Rep. Mike Oxley (R-Ohio) that banks will cost consumers more if they are let into real estate sales and management, they little realized they are speaking to deaf ears.
Real estate transfer taxes are already happening in all but 13 states because states have oversight of transfer tax rates for real estate transfers. With federal oversight, it becomes a federal coffer-filler.
Remember, we're talking about a government that is $7.8 trillion in debt. While government distracts the public from its overspending by scaring the public about underfunded Social Security, it has thought of a brilliant way to siphon off some of the $6.75 billion annually paid to the nation's 1.1 million Realtors in commissions.
The trick is creating a new tax without a public outcry. By distracting the public with heroics as it strong-arms Realtors into extinction, the transfer tax will be slipped through on a Congressional housekeeping bill and quietly show up on HUD statements at closing. Consumers will never realize the difference because all they will know, thanks to the trumpeting of Oxley's heroics by The Wall Street Journal, et al, is that consumers are paying less in transactions costs, trimmed sharply by banking fees promised to be lower than commissions paid to Realtors.
Read the FULL STORY->
posted by Susan VanSlyke at 7:38 PM
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