Leave no consumer behind.......

If a kid grows up without a formal education and lives in an environment where the parents communicate in hush-hush tones on a need-to-know basis, by the time that kid is a young adult he's, well, a dolt.

Take the real school of hard knocks, housing, for example.

There are so many ways to obtain housing information you can get some by virtually peering through home windows, yet most consumer knowledge of the market comes in the form of street smarts obtained only when it's time to buy a home.

It's like sex-education in the 1950s.

Most consumers typically don't learn how to put a roof over their heads until, well, it's time to put a roof over their heads.

Only a little more than one in three consumers said they know "a lot" or "a fair amount" about real estate agents, brokers and their services, according to AARP data sifted by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA).

What's more, only 34 percent of consumers polled knew that the local multiple listing service (MLS) is the most complete source of information about homes for sale, only 26 percent were aware that commissions can be negotiated, and only 30 percent knew that states regulate much of the real estate industry.

Once consumers hit the street, however, some lights do go on.

Among those who had used the services of an agent or broker in the past five years, 58 percent said they were knowledgeable about real estate; 44 percent understood the informative power of the local MLS, 31 percent knew commissions can be negotiated and 38 percent knew they had state regulatory protection.

The study is only the latest in a growing library of studies about the lack of consumer knowledge about the ever-changing world of residential real estate. In a nation where 69 percent of the households are owner-occupied, most consumers don't know as much as they should about what is likely the most costly transaction they will ever endure.

"Home sellers and buyers who think they understand a complicated industry, yet in fact do not, are at a disadvantage in obtaining effective representation, reasonable commissions, adequate redress, and for buyers, complete information about listings," said Stephen Brobeck, CFA's executive director.

There's enough blame to go around for raising housing dumb consumers -- home schooling from parents, few of whom have reason to regularly monitor the housing market; home buyers who refuse to learn before the knowledge is needed; the infrequent nature of the home buying transaction and, of course, the media's limited number of analytical real estate writers, among others.

But it's also time for the real estate industry to grow up and stop forcing regulators into the excruciatingly political process of mandating change.

Most regulatory reform, especially major overhauls, include disclosure mandates telling the industry, as if it's a delinquent kid, to reveal to consumers data pertinent to their transactions.

Just in this decade alone, regulation has wrested from the hands of gatekeepers control of credit scores, credit reports and home equity and non-traditional loan information. Law enforcement has gone after moving companies, identity theft, title insurance operators, telemarketing firms, new home defects, fraud, and predatory lending.

A final provision in the "Interagency Guidance on Nontraditional Mortgage Product Risks", which federal monetary agencies adopted late last year, after more than a year of wrangling, is a voluntary disclosure form. It's designed to ensure that consumers have clear and balanced information about nontraditional mortgages before choosing a mortgage product or before selecting a payment option for an existing mortgage.

Too many consumers were never fully made aware of the risks involved with certain nontraditional mortgages in terms of how much they would truly cost a year or more down the road. Worse, many consumers were granted loans based on their ability to pay the mortgage based on the initial reduced "teaser" rate, rather than the more fully amortized rate.

That lack of that information is an underlying factor in foreclosures jumping by 90 percent in the past year.

What a consumer doesn't know, obviously, can cost him or her their home.

The real estate industry itself has produced reports revealing that a better informed consumer makes for a better deal because that consumer needs less professional hand-holding, closes deals sooner and spends more cash than those less informed.

It's not surprising the Internet has surpassed the yard sign as the most important marketing tool to reach consumers. There's a lot more information on a single Web page than a block of yard signs.

In recent years, another form of holding cards close to the vest has become a growing nuisance -- anti-competitive behavior.

Generally, speaking, in a democracy, the more kinds of outlets for goods and services, the greater the flow of information about those goods and services and the more competitive the industry.

Sure, the greedy get grumpy, but consumers spend more money and the wealth is shared more equitably.

"While there have been many positive developments in the residential real estate industry, there are some indications that consumers are not enjoying all of the possible benefits of competition in the real estate brokerage industry.

A number of developments have raised competitive concerns, particularly laws and regulations in some states that limit consumer choice of real estate brokerage service offerings and that prohibit rebates to consumers, anticompetitive agreements among brokers, and industry practices that impede competition," according to "Competition in the Real Estate Industry," released earlier this year by the Federal Trade Commission and the U.S. Department of Justice.

"These practices can lead to substantial consumer harm through reduced choice of real estate brokerage services, higher fees, and limitations on the ability to access information about real estate listings," the report concludes.

It's time for the industry to show all its cards.

Consumers will even pay to see them.

The consumer federation found that while agents and brokers typically require home buyers to sign exclusive agreements with them in order to gain access to local multiple listing services, 63 percent of all respondents, and 70 percent of those who had recently worked with a broker (the smarter group), believe that buyers should not have to sign such an exclusive agreement to gain access to these listing services.

"They believe they should gain access, for example, simply by paying a reasonable fee," the report said.

It really is all negotiable.