I was just sitting thinking about how Congress has dropped the ball on regulating AMCs, and how we let it happen.
Let's look at how Congress' implementation of AMC's would work in other areas of business shall we....
Suppose the new Health Care reform were to work like AMCs. Doctor's would have to sign up with Insurance Companies to be part of an approved panel. They would have to either submit their fee schedule or agree to the one provided by the AMC. So now you get ill and need an operation. You call the Insurance Co. and tell them you are ill and need to see a Doctor. The Insurance Co. quotes you that operation will cost you $750 dollars. The Insurance Co sends out a broadcast message saying that they have a client that needs an operation. Doctor Smith replies to the broadcast saying that he can do the operation for $150 dollars. Doctor Jones replies saying he can do the operation for $350. Now Doctor Smith has been a Surgeon for let's say a year and has performed this operation 10 times. Doctor Jones has been a Surgeon for 15 years and done the procedure well over 100 times. Who do you think the Insurance Co is going to give the work to ?
Again, don't get me wrong, there are some good AMC businesses out there, but there are more bad ones then good....
The housing market should start to rebound soon. The Hampton Roads area was hit hard when the bubble burst, but compared to other communities, we were lucky.
I just wish we would go back the days of doing a good job for a client meant that would be "on thier list" for future work. I liked knowing and communicating with the people that I "worked" for instead of the faceless AMC's that we are dealing with now. In typical fashion, AMCs were implemented half #####, instead of Congress making sure that AMCs were regulated and run based on specific guidelines, they just allowed anyone to create one, set whatever Fee Schedules they wanted etc... Do not get me wrong, there are some really quality AMC companies that I have been dealing with, but much like eggs, it only takes a few to spoil the bunch.