Back in June of this year, US News & World Report hosted an installment of the Housing Rumble with Luke Mullins of the Home Front column mediating a debate between Jay Thompson, a Phoenix real estate broker and Greg Healy, the vice president of operations at ForSaleByOwner.com, a Web-based company that markets the homes of independent sellers.

The subject of the debate was a very simple and often brought up question…“Do you need a real estate agent to sell your home?”

Well, in resounding fashion, in an overwhelming landslide, the public spoke and Greg Healy soundly thrashed Jay Thompson’s argument. No, you don’t need a real estate agent to sell your home!

Thompson being the gentlemen that he is, took his defeat like a man and said “congrats to Greg for spanking me in the voting. ”

But…that was then..this is now!

It wasn’t quite the “Thrilla in Manila”, but a couple of weeks ago Healy threw down on agents again by issuing a press release letting the world know that the closely guarded embassy of realtordom or rather realtordumb was under attack and he was leading the charge.

Of course, Thompson and his colleagues were summoned by the fires of Twitter and other Social Media outlets for support and reinforcement to hold back the charge. Yes, they armed themselves greatly. After being beaten like Jerry Quarry in an Ali fight, Thompson knew better to go it alone this time.

Everyone from the gang of 30 at agentgenius to the legions at Active Rain were armed and ready. They stormed the bastille at the NAR demanding action. They sent missives to the propaganda outlets across the blogosphere in true Sunny Yunny fashion to make sure all knew this battle would not be lost.

Yet, like a true Spartan, (and No…we’re not talking about Greg Swann and the 9 and ninety-nine), Healy emerged victorious once again. Much to the chagrin of Thompson and his realtor orcs.

So what was the cause of this epic battle this time. A press release issued by ForSaleByOwner.
By now many have read it and many have allowed their eyes to be deceived so we won’t go through it line by line.
However what we do have is an exclusive interview with Greg Healy who says he stands behind his release 100% and there will be no retraction.

So Thompson, Shaw and some others call the man deceitful and toss insults. This against a man who is marketing his company to those who want a real alternative to dealing with people who seek to openly denigrate and insult without regard.

You think what you will, but if you read the noxious fauna of text that resides on some of these agents websites and how they react to open competition…who would you want to do business with?

I for one welcome competition. It makes for a better business. When one resorts to calling a competitor a “liar” and to rather than speak intelligently instead openly invite lawsuits from competitors it makes you wonder if thinks are worse on the Realtor homefront than most are letting on.

Here’s Healy’s interview in its entirety. I don’t expect it will change the mind of those agents who find opposition to Healy’s business model.

But I think for the many consumers who may read and hear this, you can judge for yourself who handles themselves professionally and who are the dinosaurs afraid of what lies ahead for a “profession” whose existence may be waning.

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