In winter, as we walked into my grammar school, there stood our principal with his hat on, telling every student to take his hat off. This is my first memory of "Do as I say, not as I do."
I was struck last year, when the Congressional lobbyists for the NAR tauted their success at keeping the banks out of Real Estate for another 2 years. Their hope had been to keep the banks out in perpetuity.
The banks, with Wells Fargo (one of the top spending Congressional Lobbyists) in the lead, hope to sell Real Estate, much as they already sell life insurance and stocks. In Real Estate, they'd become "The Discounters From Hell."
The DOJ and the FTC are breathing down our collective necks for actions in restraint of trade and unfair and non-competitive business practices. And many of these court cases, the NAR is supporting these practices with our dues dollars. Can we continue advocating for what isn't in the best interest of our clients?
Freakonomics likens us Realtors to the KKK. Wasn't it bad enough when we were compared to used car salesmen? In Freakonomics they showed that Realtors kept their own homes on the market longer than the homes of our clients.
In a different way we can cut more costs and make more money by becoming discounters ourselves, selling more homes for less and turning over our inventory 20-40% more often. Does anyone still believe the discounter's motto: "Your first offer is your best offer", at least if you're the agent.
Lawyers are trained to take argue both sides of an argument. Realtors are trained to talk out of both sides of our mouths.
We tout our tolerance for different models to the DOJ. Yet we fight those different models in the field, in our MLSs and in court.
How much longer can we fight our data being broadcast out on the Internet? My local AR makes a home owner sign a waiver allowing us to put a for sale sign on their lawn. Shouldn't there also be a waiver to not put a virtual for sale sign out every where on the Internet?
Is it better to keep our listing data just on our own Websites or push out our data to Zillow, Trulia, Google Base, Yahoo Real Estate and MSN?
Isn't it in the best interest of our clients (to whom we owe fiducary responsibilities) to get their home's listing data out to the 70+% of home buyers who start their home search on the Internet?
If the NAR keeps its focus on the DOJ, the FTC, the discounters, the banks and the Internet, we'll loose site of our goal and trip over our future and the best ways to sell a home.
Happy Searching.
Posted by: Cliff Jacobson
Adapt Or Die!
WebHomeUSAblog: The Blog of Online Real Estate Marketing
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