Thinking through this, on the cheap, is for the discussion to occur internally at the broker level. A decision needs to be made as to who they serve.

We know they must serve the agent and have done so with offering wonderful splits. But agents need more than that. Splits are great when there is a buying frenzy. But 90% of a quiet market — 90% of $0.00 is $0.00.

What everyone can and will benefit from is building a sense of meaning. Building a culture. A culture that extends from the plush corporate facility right down to the aura around every agent as they sit at their favorite cafe, working on their laptops and dreaming up their next deal.

This can't cost that much. It's a start. And it can spread WOM which is still the best and freest form of marketing there is.

There was a period of years in the early 1990s when Apple's products didn't quite deliver on their message — and their sales suffered. When they re-aligned their product with their brand (beginning with the introduction of the iMAC) their sales rebounded and their company was literally turned around.

So the 2 questions for real estate companies to consider are:

A) Are you willing to talk the talk and build your brand on an exceptional customer experience? AND IF SO…are you willing to spend the marketing dollars necessary to communicate your message (i.e. — ADVERTISING WITHOUT LISTINGS)

B) Are you willing to stop hiding behind "the problem with managing independent contractors" and walk the talk by providing the support, training and then enforcing standards of performance among your agents so that your brand can deliver on its message?

The first company to step up to the plate with the resources to say "yes" to both questions will win the game — literally.

Thanks to Parallels (http://www.parallels.com), you can install Windows on your Mac computer. I am running Windows XP on my Macbook Pro right now to access the MLS while I do all of my other work in OS X. Life has never been better.