If you want to buy or sell a house, plenty of real estate agents are out there, cell phones in hand. Membership in the Des Moines Area Association of Realtors has jumped from 1,000 four years ago to 1,600 today.

However, 900 of Central Iowa’s active licensed agents work for one company, Iowa Realty, so the question that’s been hanging in the air for 20 years is still relevant: How can the little guys compete against the giant?

It’s a question that has led to open warfare in the courts in recent years, and at least one lawsuit still smolders. But most of the struggle takes place in small, daily skirmishes, one customer at a time.

Five years ago this week, Doug Burnett left an Iowa Realty affiliate, First Realty/Better Homes and Gardens, to start his own agency, Burnett Realty. Part of his motivation came from turning 40, but in addition to that, “I sensed that a fragmentation was coming back into the marketplace and there was a need for niche players,” Burnett said. “That’s what we’ve been filling”

Burnett has a different take on the usual “economies of scale” theory: “The big-company model is ‘let’s spend millions on media advertisements in a shotgun approach, spread the net and pick up a certain percentage,’” he said. “That’s really costly. Our philosophy is to hire good agents and stay close to our customers.”

His company has about 46 agents, and “they’ve all been trained by me personally, they’re supervised by me and I get to interact with them personally and business-wise,” Burnett said.

The booming Central Iowa housing market generates more customers every year for everyone. But if things should start to cool down, Burnett thinks his small, nimble company will be prepared. “I think we’re as well-positioned as anybody in this marketplace,” he said. “We don’t have much overhead, and we don’t have massive commitments in contracts and real estate. Anybody who relies on a big net and spends a lot of money to prime the pump still has to put money out there even if the pie is shrinking.”

Mike Raye has about 20 agents at the company he manages, Universal Realty, and said most of his business comes through repeat customers and referrals. “I can’t go against Iowa Realty in an ad war, and I really don’t try to,” said Raye, who once worked for Stanbrough Realty.

“At Stanbrough, we got into a battle with Iowa Realty to be number one,” he said. “You hire as many people as you have to; you’re really churning people. It used to be you hired nine agents to get one who would still be with you a year later. I’ve played that game, and I don’t want to anymore.”

At Next Generation Realty, a more aggressive approach has led to court battles with Iowa Realty. Rob Doheny and Tom Franklin started their flat-fee company 10 years ago, aiming for “sellers who have a need to sell,” Franklin said. Most Des Moines real estate agents earn a 7 percent commission on each sale; with about 25 agents and a flat fee of $4,490, Franklin said his company now handles about 10 percent of the area’s home resale business, selling homes at an average sale price of $161,000.

A few years ago, friction developed over multiple-listing procedures and led to legal action. Next Generation and an affiliated company sued Iowa Realty and sister company First Realty in 1999, charging restraint of trade. The claim was rejected in Polk County District Court, and last year the Iowa Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

(Coldwell Banker Mid-America Group Realtors, the second-largest Central Iowa real estate brokerage in agent numbers, currently has a lawsuit pending against Iowa Realty, charging that the larger company’s plan for exclusive listings is anti-competitive.)

One strike against Next Generation’s legal complaint was that the company’s rapid growth suggested no harm wais being done by Iowa Realty’s business practices.

Like Iowa Realty, hard-charging Next Generation sponsors a Sunday morning television show. However, the company breaks away from real estate tradition when it comes to open houses. “Our sellers show their own homes (instead of putting a real estate agent in charge),” Franklin said. “This way, about two-thirds of our homes are open every weekend, and we utilize the most knowledgeable person, the seller, to show the home.”

The company’s Web site receives about 1 million hits per month, Franklin said, and Next Generation has sold franchise operations in San Jose, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C.

“Some real estate people don’t like us because we’re changing the playing field,” Franklin said. “But the playing field changes in every industry.”