For decades it has been a system that has worked flawlessly without any hold backs. Modern times and have change but people still prefer to do business with a live person and not online when it comes to making one of their most important decisions of their lives. Selling or buying their homes is one the most important decision people will make and we have always been more than happy to help them with everyone of those needs. Today we are facing a dilemma, one that should be addressed with urgency. Brokers/agents have always been able to provide prospects with current, accurate, & straight from the MLS market analysis, comparables, net-sheets, and so on. Today we are being undersold by Zillow, Trulia, & Redfin just to name a few of these companies. They have been obtaining our information once with upload our listings to the MLS by agreeing to send listing to the internet. At that time they will contact a random agent to purchase a zipcode  where he/she is farming and they will mislead prospects by showing them as the point of contact for that listing- making them appear as the listing agent.  Funny thing is that you will find the listing agents name and listing website at the very bottom of the page which we all know nearly no one will take the time to scroll to the bottom of the webpage. Which brings me to why is it that we have to obey by state and local boards thus pay hundreds of dollars to use the MLS while these rules and fees to these 3rd party companies don't apply. Moreover I was contacted by the above mentioned vendors wanting me to sign up and when I asked if their listings were up and current they declared they were, therefore I decided to test them. I made them search one of my listing's, they had it as active; note that same listing had sold 4 months prior. I did that with two additional listings with the same results, one of them had sold 6 months prior and still showing as ACTIVE. Moving forward, they wanted to charge to put me as the contact agent for my own listing, Why would I want to do business with any company that is misleading anyone. As an agent I feel that we as a community should make a stand and put a stop to any company that is willing to mislead anyone for a quick dollar gain. We pay and deliver high customer service to everyone in need of it. When I say we, I am talking about you & me (US). Everyone of us needs to let our congress, NAR, CAR, BRE, Etc. that we as brokers/agents want a halt to these companies that want to monopolize the Real Estate Market. I believe that the MLS should be the only way to provide anyone with up to date, current, and correct market analysis, comps, active, and so on information that can be provided by any active broker/agent in the nation via MLS portal. Sometimes things might not concern us because we are to busy to stop and look, today I am asking that you stop and look before it's to late. Make a stand contact your local boards about boycotting any company that is willing to mislead ANYONE doing Real Estate or any business in that matter. I am not here to sell my company I am here to make a stand for all of US. Finally I want to thank anyone that brings this matter up as this is a battle and war we should win if we stand united.

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  • I received this letter below by email sent by NAR President, STEVE BROWN and NAR CEO, DALE STINTON. All NAR members could have received this also.....

     


    The Fault Lies not in the Stars …



    Much has been made of how technology has and will affect our lives and chosen vocations.  Technology speeds things up.  Technology provides instant access.  Technology feeds the insatiable demand for more and more meaningful information. Information wants to be free.  Technology and ‘change’ are often used interchangeably to remind us that our world tomorrow will be very different than it was yesterday.  Then you throw in a healthy dose of ‘who moved my cheese’ and all those other consultant driven mantras about adapting to the new world order and quickly your head is spinning and you just want it all to stop.  But it doesn’t and it’s not going to!

    The legendary Steve Jobs was described as mercurial, a little crazy, and passionately driven.  But one of his favorite quotes tells us everything we need to know about him:  “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something – your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.  This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

    So what’s all this got to do with you and your participation in organized real estate?  Let’s go back and connect the dots.  An industry that’s come together for over one hundred years.  Inventors of cooperation and compensation.  Inventors of self policing through a strict code of ethics and professional standards.  Inventors of MLS.  Inventors of RPAC, the countries strongest political force.  Inventors of yes, Realtor.com®, the first viable real estate portal, the traffic leader in the space for the first 15 years.

    Here are a few Realtor.com dots.  The business case for Realtor.com®, now 18 years ago, was summarized in the popular “lions coming over the hill” speech which has been repeated many many times.  In its’ rawest form it said – if others harness the ability to aggregate data from your listings, and capture the consumer upstream, you will be disintermediated.  Therefore, in exchange for using your listing data to make commerce, we will cause to be created a Realtor®-friendly, accurate, time sensitive, site with explicit guarantees not to threaten your commission or disintermediate you.  To this day, Realtor.com® has kept its promise and it will continue to do so.

    But as in any business, where there is a vacuum, the market will move to fill it.  This is a good thing.  We need to embrace competitive forces, learn from them and adapt.  Competition should strengthen us because of the healthy tension it can create but we must also strengthen our resolve and stand up for ourselves.

    As Realtors®, data does not define us; our insights, experience and expertise run much deeper than that. So as the industry moves forward, we have to look at ourselves – and better define our value proposition.

    NAR believes that a highly skilled and professional Realtor® is and will always be integral to the process of buying and selling real estate. The association and its leadership is committed to promoting and supporting the Realtor® brand and Realtor® value proposition to consumers.  In the internet age, consumers are going to go online for real estate information, but they will continue to rely on local experts when they buy and sell property. NAR is committed to ensuring that Realtors® are those local experts. 

    So just as data does not define us, nor should we allow service providers to become too comfortable in defining how you conduct your business.  In practical, actionable terms – this is what you can do:


    • Demand the brokers and the listing agents identity be prominently displayed

    • Demand timely, ‘fresh’ listing display

    • Do not allow your listings to be modified

    • Do not allow co-mingling of your listings with FSBO’s

    • Demand preservation of copyright notices on your listings

    • Understand the terms of use you agree to for your listings

    • Demand that your provider highlight and promote the term Realtor®

    • AND – NEVER, EVER let any provider threaten your commission!

    This advice is provided as a way to emphasize that your listings, your data were acquired by you through tremendous work and effort, and a heck of a lot of money is being moved around in the marketplace predicated on you continuing to provide it.  It’s seed corn – don’t squander it.

    Now comes the hard part – we must be brutally honest – you must change and quickly.  Your value proposition is not data – it’s YOU!  You must be the best and you must be the most professional and ethical.  For too long we’ve allowed the term Realtor® to be bandied about as a low ranking career choice.  Your future lies in upgrading and elevating our profession to make you absolutely indispensable to the real estate transaction.  Do not fall in the trap of thinking if we just regain control of the data that everything will go back to the way it was.  It won’t.  A quote from the NAR Strategic Plan says it all – “We need to be totally consumer centric – not what we want but what they want – and be able to adapt quickly.”

    With over 1 million members it’s time, as Steve Jobs said, to trust in something, and that something is a history and a future of which we all can be proud.  Connecting a million plus dots is never easy, change can be excruciating – but if not now, when?

    Sincerely,

    Steve Brown
    2014 NAR President

    Dale Stinton
    NAR Chief Executive Officer

    NAR Letter from CEO & Pres. - Memo Style.pdf

    • Ahhh well. I was writing similar stuff as far back as 1981 about 'being more professional' and trying to take the public opinion of us to a higher level than snake oil sales. I had several articles published in REALTOR TODAY, I believe that was the magazine name.

       

      The letter above seems to be saying to just laugh it off and be a pro and these wont be problems for you. NOT. They are and will. Already we are (Preparing to duck for cover now) just barely needed in the listing process. In fact, an entire new batch of brokers are taking listings away by just charging a flat fee for MLS input and they do not represent the seller at all. Some even tell the sellers not to call them again. Double in fact---if someone with the money were to put together a nationally advertised PUBLIC LISTING SERVICE all the broker controlled MLS services would close down. The ONLY thing we have as an ace card is control over each local MLS. Almost all buyers now find their own properties through the internet. I see a future of a huge for sale database and real estate agents as semi paralegals just hired to help facilitate the paperwork. The main reason we even have this job is that lawyers dont play taxi,  and they charge by the hour regardless of outcome. We prostitute ourselves and often receive no pay for hours of work when transactions do not close.

       

      So we can stick our heads in the sand and ignore Zillow and data companies like it but we will hurt from it.

  • Let's try to bring In as many brokers /agents nation wide to this much need discussion to mastermind & put a solution to it ASAP.
    • Heheheheh..... I printed a copy of this discussion board after my posting and emailed it to the Executive Officers of the Board of Realtors of CVAR, Tri-County Board of Realtors and West San Gabriel Board of Realtors who are also members of the board of our local AREAA Tri-County Chapter. I am still waiting a response. You can also discuss this issue to your own local board of realtors and see what they have to say.

  • julio..I am in. This will be a huge row to how. We could not possibly fight this fight without ALL Realtors standing up. Perhaps petitioning the NAR would be a good start. Letting them know that hundreds of thousands of us are passionate about this issue. It would absolutely require the Realtors from all states participate. Also, is it legal? We could use the Causes website to secure the signatures. Spread it utilizing social media. It might be worth a try. You know yourself that agents aren't going to write letters. It's needs to be easy. Short and sweet. Sign and click...done. Let's brainstorm. We have all considered those websites unfair to us for a long time but we just sit back and say..oh well it is what it is. Should we rock the boat? If you will look into the legal consequenses, if any. I will help draft the letter of complaint. I myself are tired of paying for MLS privledged while it's freely added to those inept sites. It's our listing, we work long and hard....I would like the phone call from the potential client. Comments please.
    • Excuse the typo's. It is late here. I'm interested to see the feedback from other Realtors!
  • I'm glad I'm not the only agent out there that recognizes a crucial time in real estate. Our very own organization is not helping us out. Perhaps if we switch local boards they will lose money on membership & start noticing that without us they will lose. Here is suggestion; use the same/similar system/platform as Zillow, Trulia & redfin. give them a taste of their own medicine. The down side to it is that it appears like our boards have been bought out by them already. Just look in the MLS where is now required to have your seller have a signed agreement not to list their property on 3rd party websites. I think they did this to prevent us from doing so. Our strength is on numbers and our voices. Let us be heard so we can make those necessary changes.
  • Yes! I agree 100%. Buyer's get upset with us if they see something online and it's been sold for a month. Even Realtor.com is a mess.

  • Hehehehe... what is funny here is if you do not update your listing to pending or sold on time when status changes occur, the MLS penalizes you as the listing agent big time in $$$. But when these 3rd parties advertise the listing still as active for many months, no penalty? And when the homebuyers see these inaccuracies in listing status, then the blame is on the agent. We as professional Realtors are getting a bad reputation online this way. It is high time that the MLS and NAR should develop as statewide/nationwide public version MLS online where homebuyers can get information and call the listing agent direct when they need to get more info. After all, we are also paying membership fees to these organizations for their existence. When these 3rd parties start catering to listing agents to submit their listings in their portals even for a small fee but with a promise of huge marketing exposure online nationwide, this could spell the end of the MLS. The direction of these 3rd parties is towards that line. You may notice that Auction.com may have started (if not still on hold) marketing to home sellers to list their homes direct with Auction.com  In the future, we as agents may have the flexibility to list our properties direct for a fee to these 3rd parties for online marketing when they open that option and the MLS is gone or half gone. The big problem here is when these 3rd parties start marketing to home sellers to list their homes direct to their portals for marketing without paying a Realtor's fee. IT IS HIGH TIME THAT MLS and NAR DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS TO PRESERVE THEIR EXISTENCE.

    http://Auction.com/
  • Julio - The Trulia idiots have asked me several times in the past month if I had sold a listing in Hawaii and Wisconsin - HELLO! I am in Arkansas, dumba$$. I keep emailing them that those are not my listings.

    Send those scoundrels and money? No way, Never!

    Zillow shows me with 4 listings, none sold. HEY dumbuttzs,  I always have more than 30 listings and have closed 10 this year.

    Just goes to show that any fool with a bucketful of money can make more money on the internet when stoopid, going broke, lazy agents will send them money.

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