Article: Buying A La Carte Bill Wendel's latest venture, The Real Estate Cafe, aims to be the buyer's `guardian angel'

CAMBRIDGE -- Consumer housing advocate Bill Wendel has opened a boutique.

Called The Real Estate Cafe, it is a self-service information center for buyers and sellers designed to reduce costs by having consumers do some of the work themselves.

Wendel, 40, founder of the Massachusetts Homebuyers Club, a nonprofit clearinghouse on affordable housing for low and moderate-income families, says his new for-profit venture will allow buyers to choose real estate services -- a la carte -- and pay only for what they need. By changing the system of compensation, so that brokers are no longer automatically paid based on a percentage of the sale, Wendel hopes he has created a fairer way to purchase ...

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