Oklahoma's new broker relationships act eliminates agency relationships between brokers and consumers. Although the law isn't clear whether there is any difference between single party brokerage and agency, licensees will not be allowed to call themselves agents, a fact that has a few people upset. Upsetting others is the disclosure forms being printed by most associations which will include an explanation of vicarious liability for the consumer.

Real estate isn't generally sold at the auction house, but online bidding has gotten the real estate industry's attention.

Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Homebid.com initially tried the idea before switching business models. And eBay has teamed with zipRealty to accept online bids for homes, albeit non-binding ones.

There's now another player trying to put the power of auctions into real estate: Austin, Texas-based Homesbyauction.com.

The brainchild of Gary Keller, founder of Austin-based real estate brokerage Keller Williams, Homesbyauction.com has built a Web-based platform that lets agents hold online home auctions for properties.

David Tennant, Homesbyauction.com's' vice president of business development, believes the industry is ready for online auctions that allow traditional real estate agents to remain in control of the process.

"In some form, it's going to change real estate," Tennant said regarding auctions. "But it's not going to change the roles people play."

Tennant said Homesbyauction.com is privately owned and funded by real estate companies like Keller Williams who believed in the potential of online auctions. "We're not going to sit back and hope that the real estate agent is involved," he said. "What we're trying to do is be proactive about it."

Online home auction providers may face some competition from eBay, one of the most popular consumer shopping sites, which has provided online bidding for properties for a couple years now.

However, eBay's bids are non-binding, whereas bids submitted by Homesbyauction.com's agents, are. "The real estate agent legitimizes what we're doing," Tennant said.

Homesbyauction.com makes its money by providing licensing contracts to real estate companies. There's no charge to agents, as Tennant said this group has enough personal expenses to deal with.

Real estate companies who participate will advertise their Homesbyauction.com auctions in their local market, inviting all local agents to participate in the bidding, Tennant said.

According to Tennant, Homesbyauction.com is taking a long-range business approach. The system is being marketed directly to real estate companies instead of consumers, which saves advertising costs. And as a privately funded company, there are no investors to please, he said.

"Giving away control or not developing as a traditional company might keep us from accomplishing what we want to accomplish down the line," he said.

In fact, Tennant thinks it's possible for Homesbyauction.com to become successful without consumers really knowing much about the company. "We're selling real estate through the agent," he said. "We're not worried about our awareness so much."

Homesbyauction.com recently conducted a "test market" of 35 properties during a two-month period and sold four through the auction format. Since then, the company is concentrating on increasing the ratio of sales per auction.

Another auction in El Paso garnered two sales from six properties, with a total of 55 bids submitted. Keller Williams is currently using the site to auction seven properties homes in El Paso, Tennant said, with another auction being prepared in Austin.

Tennant thinks the idea of online auctions will work well in a hot market, where bidding increases, and in a slower market, when agents are trying to differentiate their listings from those of competitors.

He added that the company's goal is to keep the numbers of homes in its early auctions small, and "let it build slowly and successfully."

"Auctioning in itself is going to take a little bit of time to become part of the way people buy and sell homes in any market," he said. "But because the systems already there, it will happen a little quicker than we think."

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