Real Estate Brokers

Marco Huerta and Youngmin Bae bought their Burbank home without ever meeting their real estate agent. Instead, they scoured listings for their favorite neighborhoods, haggled over prices and even wrote their offer using Marco's cellphone. There was no housewarming plant on the porch when they moved in, but the couple aren't complaining: They received a $10,000 check as a "rebate" from their agent's 3% commission. "It's a great incentive," said Marco Huerta, 32.

Real estate broker Carl Muhlstein maneuvered his silver BMW convertible through downtown Los Angeles traffic, one hand steering the car and the other pressing a cellphone to his ear. "Come on," he teased. "Insult me with an offer." While some who swim the deep and often lucrative waters of commercial real estate have retreated to the golf course, Muhlstein is among those pushing on -- joking, nudging and networking in hopes of making deals in a time of no deals.

The online real estate brokerage Redfin says it plans to start posting consumer reviews of real estate agents on its website. The firm has persuaded 35 agents -- 18 of them in California -- to participate. The company pulled Multiple Listing Service records since December 2007 for the agents and surveyed the agents' clients by e-mail. The agents will not be able to edit or reject reviews but will be able to post replies. Although agents risk being panned by their clients, they also hope the publicity will lead to referrals.

Hundreds of thousands of Californians could be eligible for $100 payments under the proposed settlement of a class-action lawsuit against some of the nation's largest residential real estate brokerages. The lawsuit accused the real estate brokers of taking kickbacks from a firm that provides hazard reports for properties in areas with heightened risk of floods, fire, earthquakes and landslides. The settlement agreement is pending final approval by a U.S. district judge in Los Angeles.

Recent Chicago transplants Pieter and Beth van Es have recovered from their sticker shock and are ready to buy a house in Southern California. Now, the Irvine couple have a new incentive. When they buy their home through an online broker, they will get a nice chunk of their money back. The Van Eses are using Seattle-based Redfin, one of several new brokerage services that hope to revolutionize home buying by rebating part of their commissions back to buyers.

HERE'S what Dave Hennigan knows about the four-bedroom house tucked away on a tranquil Corona street: The owner is a woman, and she's $8,155 behind on her mortgage payments. Maybe she had a messy divorce or expensive illness. Maybe she has been spending too much and saving too little. Hennigan, a 45-year-old Riverside County real estate agent, doesn't plan to ask. As he navigates the suburban streets, map in hand, he rehearses his pitch.

Realogy Corp., owner of the Century 21, Coldwell Banker and ERA real estate brokers, agreed to place more than 500,000 listings on Google.com and Trulia.com. The move will broaden the exposure of listings from Realogy companies because more than 58% of all Internet searches for "real estate" are conducted on Google and its partner sites, Parsippany, N.J.-based Realogy said. Google Inc. operates the most-used Internet search engine, and Trulia enables the public to find properties online.

REAL estate agent Christine Lloyd-Maddocks doesn't sing or play an instrument. But she is fluent in a lingo that's foreign to most people outside the music industry: She represents sellers of houses with music studios -- or the potential for one -- and the buyers who want them. Agents often specialize in niche markets, whether they are musicians or, in the case of Donna Tritten, equestrians. A horse person herself, she knows what a property needs to stable a horse.

A small Santa Ana real estate company is taking over venerable commercial real estate brokerage Grubb & Ellis Co. and will move the firm's headquarters from Chicago to Santa Ana. The merger announced Tuesday with NNN Realty Advisors Inc., a privately held real estate services and management company in Santa Ana, marks the latest consolidation in the increasingly competitive industry. "Companies need to be bigger to compete now," said real estate analyst Craig Silvers of Bricks & Mortar Capital.

Federal regulators have sued Coldwell Banker, Prudential and other real estate giants, contending that their brokers took kickbacks for steering Californians to a company that reports on earthquake and other hazards for homes being sold. Brokers got $25 out of each $100 fee that the company, Property I.D., charged home sellers for creating a report, according to the suit filed Thursday in federal court.