Realty-Reality Source: About.com ©2001 It's no secret that the real estate industry is in a state of change. Some experts are predicting that the industry will change more in the next 5 years than it has in the last 100 years. One such change is in the way real estate professionals offer their services. The term "unbundled" is beginning to show up a lot more often these days. It's showing up at MLS conferences and there seems to be a lot of thought going into it throughout the real estate industry. In a survey conducted by "Mr. Internet" Michael Russer showed that there is considerable interest in 'fee for service' brokerages. His survey suggests that as many as 85% of brokers and agents would be interested in at least taking a class of unbundling real estate services. NAREC Long time real estate educator and author, Julie Garton-Good has recently formed the National Association of Real Estate Consultants which offers the Consumer-Certified Real Estate Consultant (C-CRECtm) designation for real estate agents. "Consumers expressed loud and clear, 'We need unbiased information, flexibility and empowerment when it comes to making a variety of real estate decisions and we will gravitate to the most cost-effective, accessible source to get it." According to Garton-Good, "this became the catalyst in my drive to unbundle the real estate agent into a fee-for-services real estate consultant and the template for the Consumer-Certified Real Estate Consultant designation." The C-CRECtm designation stems from several survey's that showed that their will be a monumental shift in the real estate industry. Technology will be part of it, but it will pale in comparison to the demographic and people changes in the industry. It's expected that the amount of FSBO's in the very near future will more than double because consumers are tired of being locked into a percentage based fee schedule when there are portions of the transaction that they can handle on their own. Keep your eye on the industry, mainly the larger companies like Coldwell-Banker and Century 21. They are getting curious and will begin to look into the fee for service shift. Whether or not they implement them will remain to be seen, but they are looking.