Changes Under Foot: Real Estate Updates

“Every wetland consultant, everybody who does land development, everybody I do business with will be watching them closely,” Highland attorney Michael Muenich — who represents developers — said of the Supreme Court cases.

Don Ewoldt, who manages Indiana’s first wetland mitigation bank — 230 acres of restored wetlands in Lake Station, where developers can compensate for filled-in wetlands in other areas — is concerned about the decision’s potential implications.

“It could be hard on the environment,” he said. “A lot of wetlands could be filled in.”

Link.

In 2001, the Court determined that the so-called migratory bird rule, used to give the Corps of Engineers jurisdiction over “isolated” wetlands was an over extension of jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act (the so called SWANK case). NPR did a piece a while ago (I cannot locate it now) about the impact of that decision, and the fact is, no one is really monitoring the pace at which wetlands are being filled in in most places. The Post-Tribune article notes how much Indiana has changed through the draining of wetlands:

Wetlands covered more than 100,000 acres of Northwest Indiana before European settlers moved in, dug ditches to drain them and started farming and building on the land.

Real Estate Brokers:

Real Estate brokers scored a big win in the Indiana Legislature this year with the passage of HEA 1339. This provision mandates certain services that must be part of a listing contract. On the face, it would appear to protect sellers, assuring that they get a certain minimum level of services from their broker, but in truth, what the new law does is prevent the advancement into Indiana of low-cost brokerages, like internet brokers.

It is a strange provision as it forces the seller to accept services from the broker, even if the seller would rather not have those services and would gladly forgo them, in exchange for a lower listing fee. It deprives sellers of contract options, and as the Indiana Law Blog recently noted:

The Antitrust Division of the Justice Department, along with consumer groups and many new real estate brokers, opposes the law. Gov. Mitch Daniels did not act in the best interests of consumers and homeowners when he signed this legislation. . . .

NPR’s Morning Edition had a story last Friday, March 3rd, about how “the Internet is putting pressure on the fees that [real estate] agents have become accustomed to.” It speculated whether real estate agents would soon go the way of travel agents. And stock brokers.

In other words, no discount real estate brokers in Indiana.

Advance Indiana has more:

Advance Indiana wonders just what impact this new law will have on Indianapolis-based Homeyeah.com. Their fees are 40%-90% less than the traditional real estate brokers’ fees. As it describes its services, “Our proprietary business model and technology allows buyers and sellers to take more control of their transaction without sacrificing necessary information and licensed professional guidance at critical points during the transaction process.”

This entry was posted on Monday, March 20th, 2006 at 3:34 am and is filed under Real Estate. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.