Agency Disclosure in the Real Estate Transaction and the Impact of Related State Policies

Although agency disclosure is required by every state, recent national surveys of home buyers and sellers indicate that disclosure varies significantly across the United States. This study seeks to determine the causes of these disparities by examining states¡¯ educational standards, disclosure forms, regulatory environments, and buyer characteristics. The results identify several variables that have a deterministic impact on the probability of disclosure and suggest corrective actions and policies that states can implement to improve the effectiveness of agency disclosure in the real estate transaction.

The United States: The Privatization of Real Estate Related Public Goods and Services in the United States

During the last three decades the privatization or outsourcing of what has traditionally been considered public goods and services has become commonplace. Privatization, however, is not a monolithic concept, and encompasses many different and some newly emerging delivery systems. This study provides an overview of the current status of privatization in the U.S. as we move into the new millennium. Although the survey data discussed in this paper reveals that privatization is continuing to expand, the rate of privatization activity in the U.S. appears to have slowed from the levels reported in earlier studies. While the principal motive for outsourcing remains cost containment, there is increasing concern being expressed about the true cost of privatization. While past experience with outsourcing suggests that government officials are relatively satisfied with the results, the surveys also reveal room for improvement. Insuring the quality and the effectiveness of privatization will probably require greater monitoring and compliance activities on the part of government authorities, which will raise costs. Studies of outsourced public housing projects suggest that operating costs can be reduced without a significant loss in the quality of services. This does not mean, however, that citizens always benefit from privatization or that outsourcing is always the best course of action. This study also suggests that the quality of public service delivery systems can be improved when government agencies compete against the private sector for the right to continue delivering governmental services. In other cases, franchising, vouchers, and subsidies may prove more effective

X-Inefficiencies in the Residential Real Estate Market: A Stochastic Frontier Approach

This article examines the productive efficiency levels present in the market for residential real estate brokerage services by employing the stochastic frontier approach. The only prior study (Anderson, Zumpano, Elder and Fok, 1998) that examined productive efficiency in this sector employed data envelopment analysis. This current article addresses potential statistical limitations of Data Envelopment Analysis and uses an alternative statistical tool, the stochastic frontier approach, to estimate X-efficiencies. This technique overcomes many of the statistical limitations of DEA and provides additional productive efficiency estimates. The results suggest that residential real estate brokerage firms are relatively efficient, in contrast to the earlier study that found significant inefficiencies present in this market. Firms could only reduce their average total costs by 12% given firm outputs and input prices. Additionally, the firms were divided into three size categories to examine the impact of firm size on efficiency. The results indicate that small firms are the most efficient group. Hence, there seems to be a tradeoff between scale efficiency and productive efficiency.

Listing Specialization and Residential Real Estate Licensee

Earlier research has found that specialization by real estate agents creates economies of scope for real estate firms. So far, however, no research has addressed this issue at the agent level. The question this research seeks to answer is whether specialization in one side of the real estate transaction increases agent income. The most important finding is that specialization has an asymmetric impact on earnings. Specializing in listings positively enhances agent income. In contrast, specialization on the selling side has an adverse affect on agent income. The implications of these findings for the consumer and real estate industry are also examined.

An Investigation of Buyer Search in the Residential Real Estate Market under Different Market Conditions

The purpose of this research is to examine buyer search under different market conditions. We conduct a survival regression analysis of survey data generated by the National Association of Realtors for 1988, 1991 and 1993. We find, in all instances, that economic conditions are the dominant factor influencing search duration. Some evidence does indicate, however, that search is influenced by interest rates. Additionally, the evidence suggests that the probability of finding a home increases for broker-assisted search, while this is not the case for self-conducted search.

Measuring the Efficiency of Residential Real Estate Brokerage Firms

This article measures overall, allocative, technical, pure technical and scale efficiency levels for a sample of residential real estate brokerage firms using data envelopment analysis, a linear-programming technique. The results suggest that real estate brokerage firms operate inefficiently. Inefficiencies are primarily a function of sub-optimal input allocations and the failure to operate at constant returns to scale rather than from poor input utilization. Regression analysis is employed to determine which firm and/or market characteristics affect efficiency levels. The results show that increasing firm size increases efficiency while choosing to franchise, adding an additional multiple listing service and increasing operating leverage decreases firm performance.

Buyer Search Duration in the Residential Real Estate Market: The Role of the Real Estate Agent

This study examines buyer search duration using a national database consisting of transactions conducted with and without the assistance of real estate brokers. The results of this study indicates that information asymmetries are present in the residential real estate market. First-time buyers and out-of-town buyers search longer than more experienced and local, more knowledgeable homebuyers. On the other hand, buyers relocated by their employers spend less time looking for a home. More importantly, real estate brokers are able to reduce buyer search time for all classes of buyers, whether first-time, experienced, or an out-of-time buyer.

Agency Theory and the Changing Role of the Real Estate Broker: Conflicts and Possible Solutions

The evolving multifunction role of the real estate broker and the demands being placed upon brokers by both buyers and sellers is increasingly placing brokers in conflict with the laws governing their conduct as agents. This paper examines the nature of this conflict and evaluates proposed solutions to this problem.

Tenure Choice, Housing Demand, and Residential Location

This paper incorporates location and tenure choice into a simultaneous equation model of housing demand. The estimation results reveal that an important asymmetry may exist between renters and homeowners in terms of their respective housing decisions. The most important finding in this paper is that for homeowners housing quality and locations are jointly determined. Equally important, the decision process for homeowners appears to be sequential in nature, with tenure choice independent of the housing demand and location decisions. However, this does not appear to be the case for renters. It may be that for tenants location and housing quality choices are more limited than for homeowners.

Sinkhole susceptibility evaluation in Apulia, southern Italy

In some regions in Italy sinkholes are frequent and pose a serious threat to structures and infrastructures. Apulia region is largely affected by sinkholes of both natural and anthropogenic origin, due to the karst nature of large portions of the regional territory and to high diffusion of artificial cavities. For this reasons, susceptibility, hazard and risk posed by sinkholes must be estimated in order to gain more insights into their spatial and temporal distribution, and to apply appropriate risk management and to take proper mitigation strategies. In order to estimate the susceptibility to sinkholes in Apulia, the ensemble statistical modelling proposed by Rossi et al. (2010) and later refined by Rossi & Reichenbach (2016) is used. This allows assessing susceptibility using differentiated statistical approaches, quantifying accurately the modelling performances, and evaluating the associated uncertainty. In order to obtain accurate and reliable results thematic layers related to the sinkholes occurrence were carefully evauated and selected. This contribution shows the preliminary results of the analyses to evaluate the susceptibility to natural sinkholes, which used as training dependent (i.e. grouping) set, data extracted from the regional inventory of natural caves, edited by the Apulian Speleological Federation (www.catasto.fspuglia.it), and as validation set the natural sinkholes occurred in Apulia, collected in the chronological catalogue of sinkholes in Italy (Parise & Vennari, 2013, 2017). Appropriate thematic layers, were selected heuristically on the base of the knowledge on the triggering mechanisms and the nature of the phenomenon gained previously in the study area. Resulting regional-scale susceptibility map will be appropriately validated. The methodological procedure will be applied to the evaluation of susceptibility for anthropogenic sinkholes as well