Realtor.com has revised its operating agreement to allow non-realtors to list properties on the website. In response to this broadening of listings, Realtors are outraged at what they deem a betrayal of their exclusivity as paying members.
Still, not all properties are eligible for inclusion on Realtor.com. For example, for-sale-by-owner (FSBO) properties are still denied this privilege, as they were before.
The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has stated this move was necessary to compete with similar websites like Trulia and Zillow, which list a wider variety of properties and are more known to the buying public.
The Realtor brand will still be highlighted on the website, with Realtor listings distinguished from non-Realtor listings by the Realtor Block-R. Realtors Information Network Inc. (RIN), a subsidiary of NAR, is currently considering additional ways to further distinguish Realtor listings from non-Realtor listings.
first tuesday insight
The nice thing about paying for a Realtor membership is that the organization is exclusive. As a member, agents have access to property listings and information unavailable to the general public. Realtors are set apart in a class of their own from other, generic agents.
Right?
Not so fast. The real distinction between Realtor-brand agents and other licensed agents and brokers has always been questionable at best. It’s true, NAR has a code of ethics and pledges honesty and fair dealing, but they’re no different from the rules handed down by the Bureau of Real Estate (BRE), the California legislature and our courts. If you are a bad actor, it is the BRE that pulls your license, not NAR.
Realtor members consistently acknowledge just two benefits of their membership:
- real estate forms; and
- multiple listing service (MLS) access.
It is for this reason they pay upwards of $500 every year in membership dues.
However, many are unaware that MLS access is not and cannot be exclusive to Association of Realtor (AOR) members, thanks to California court decisions in the mid-70s. [Marin County Board of Realtors, Inc. v. Palsson (1976) 16 C3d 920]
Want to cut your annual membership bill by more than half, but retain your MLS access? Become an MLS-only member of your local board of Realtors. It’s not like this will exclude you from Realtor.com anymore.
Related article:
As for forms, California brokers and their agents have the freedom of using any they choose. Although many real estate agents erroneously believe they must use CAR forms, they actually violate real estate law by refusing to accept forms published by other entities. Agents have a fiduciary duty to their sellers to present all offers received, regardless of the form upon which it is written.
Related article:
Although many agents rail against the proliferation of free real estate information now available online, changes toward an increasingly open marketplace will not be reversed. In a Q&A published on realtor.org, NAR stated, “In today’s digital world, consumers get what consumers want. If a real estate listing site is not meeting consumer needs, other providers will step in to fill the void.”
Given the option between a listing site which provides information only on MLS homes, or a listing site which provides information on MLS and non-MLS homes, which do you think a home buyer will choose?
The march of technological advancement and limitless accessibility can only move forwards, not backwards.
Broadening access to allow non-Realtor listings on Realtor.com was inevitable. Now members need to ask themselves: Is a transition from Realtor membership to MLS-only membership also just a matter of time? It has been long in coming, and the big brokers imposing massive expense on their agents is the source of the problem.
Of course, you may be really attached to that big, fancy “R.” In that case, no one can help you cut costs.
Re: “Some fear realtor.com changes will dilute brand, standards” from Inman News and Questions and Answers About the Realtor.com® Vote from the National Association of Realtors
Perhaps FT can draft a form presentation cover sheet that will firmly but politely warn the receiving agent of all the laws they are breaking and the liability they expose themselves to if they should refuse to present the FT form to the seller or if they instruct the seller to reject the form solely on the basis that it is not a CAR form.
Anytime a home listed in an mls by a listing agent (Realtor or not) is kept from ANY buyer, can we not say the listing agent’s duty to the seller to get them the highest price (with the most market exposure ) has been breached?
I remember the days in 1973 a huge telephone-sized MLS book was to be kept from buyers (their only source of homes on market other than local news paper) as we agents needed to control doling out who sees what.
How fair to sellers was that?
AMEN!, to Athena Tutorial Academy
After working in the last twenty some years in either
sale of residential and commercial properties and alternating work in the financial
field , I agree that corruption exists in our line of work and ethics is not guaranteed by a simple association fee. Dany Marrou
Dear Laura,
Brokers have the freedom to choose between a full membership to their local Association of Realtors (AOR) and MLS-only membership. However, as a sales agent, you are required to subscribe to the same services as your broker. If your broker is not a member of an AOR, you are not required to be a member of an AOR. However, if your broker is a member of an AOR, you must also be a member of the AOR in order to access your broker’s MLS.
For more information on your membership options as a real estate agent, please see Real(i)ty check: MLS access for non-CAR members.
I am a new agent and in my city, the total “new member fee” for local/state/ntl realtor associations, MLS access and eKey is about $1,400. For each of the 3 categories above they charge a $75 “initiation fee”. I was so upset when I called the local association and they explained all these fees to me, especially after investing more than $500 to get licensed. Needless to say it not only depressed me and took the wind out of my sails ( I was so excited to start a new career in my 40s) but it made me extremely angry. I went back and reviewed the membership info again, making sure I wasn’t being too emotional or unreasonable about it. Same reaction — only outrage this time. The only thing I’m getting from this membership that I really need is access to MLS and the eKey. I don’t need to pay an organization $1000 for them to assure the public at large that I am trustworthy. My code of conduct comes from a source far higher than their little 14 rules. Which is a complete crock, b/c many REALTORS are unethical despite paying for their title. Unfortunately the brokerage I joined will get fined for each month that I do not join. (Union?) Has anyone experienced this and found work arounds? I’m considering at least negotiating those initiation fees. Those alone are around are more than $200. Why is this type of business practice so accepted in our country? Funny how these REALTOR associations market themselves as assuring ethics, while they’re using what I feel are unethical business practices themselves. Predominantly, no membership = no MLS access.
I love the First Tuesday forms. They’re great and affordable. I love not paying the dues to the Local MLS, CAR and NAR saving me $1300 annually. I am just as ethical using First Tuesday forms and renewing my brokers license with their renewal courses. The Realtor’s Code of Ethics is great. What I want to know is when overpriced Realtor posted listings expire so that I have a chance at presenting Sellers information to properly price their properties to sell. Besides in my experience, the local board of Realtors are run by the good old boys and I would rather work independently on Trulia, Zillow and Loopnet. All offers are to be presented to sellers by law. As it is, we are being nickled and dimmed to death with monthly fees for accounting programs, accountants, tax consultants, spyware, internet access, mobile telephones, mail services, general liability insurance also overpriced, merchant cards, website urls and software, rent, utilities, tv, auto insurance, DMV, gasoline. My god when will it stop? TV used to be free! Enough said
The sad truth is the ATHENA TUTORIAL ACADEMY letter is way off point and not really addressing the issue. Realtors have organized a professional organization that was the first to include a Code of Ethics and rules to govern their members. The good that those who are Realtors is certainly outweighing members who lack ethics, the vast majority care about every client, every sale and work very hard to make sure their Fiduciary Relationship is met professionally. The issue of Non-Realtor/Non-Realtor MLS parties using Realtor.com is they do not adhere to such a Code of Ethics, they are not disciplined by their respective Board of Realtors or State Real Estate Entity and can really hurt consumers. ONLY listings (remember they are from fully disclosed and signed contracts to sell a clients real estate) should be allowed in all MLS Data Bases and Realtor.com. I have been licensed 36 years and have closed over 1, 500 real estate transactions one sale at a time. My record, verifiable by public/state information, is unblemished due to my strict adherence to the Code of Ethics and my relationship and duty to my clients. Yes, probably only 20% of Realtors “Sell their own listings” hence the good purpose of the MLS. It allows independent contractors who possess a Real Estate License, are MEMBERS of a Board of Realtors and ALSO abide by such Code of Ethics, that they can represent clients and sell a cooperating listing agent’s contracted listing. It is sad, that such a narrow and petty viewpoint was presented – nothing restricts anyone from listing a property on a Non-MLS website and selling it. However the great difference is with Realtors and Non-Realtors is in the education of the Realtors, the legal forms used and truly professional service, with long term protracted liability, to represent and protect the contracted rights of our clients. Don’t have such a chip on ones shoulder, investigate the quality of representation before making sad and petty untrue statements. I am proud to represent clients, represent them in all of the myriad of complex situations from full and proper disclosures to successful close of escrow. We should be thankful there are Realtors in America, over 100 years of success.
It is unfortunate that Brian Burry had to be so close-minded and exclusivist in his opinions. He obviously supports an antiquated system meant to gouge the real estate professional as well as defraud the general public of much needed information that should be available to everyone and for free. Let’s bury Brian Burry’s antiquated system once and for all in the graveyard of outdated real estate practices.
It’s not a rip-off at all! The real rip off is the whole concept of an exclusive MLS that ties realtors into a paid system. Anyone should be allowed to list properties anywhere they choose. It’s time to throw the “exclusive” MLS into the dust bin of real estate history.
Realtors use so many tricks to avoid showing properties to sincere persons wanting to view them. They conveniently “misplace” keys when they do not want to show a place, or they simply “cannot” open the lockbox for some reason.
They lie about if and how many offers they have received. The listing agent rarely shows his or her own properties, and they leave it to others to do their footwork, as they have become so high and mighty. So, anyone wishing to view a property has to navigate the muddy waters of the string of hungry agents standing between the potential buyer and the listing agents, by choice of the high and mighty listing agent.
We say—-scrap the whole corrupt system, and begin from the ground up building a more transparent, open, and equitable structure to advertise and sell homes. If that cuts out all the scheisters that have chosen real estate as a profession, so be it. Such a cleansing is long overdue. Realtors rank not all that far below attorneys on the scale of trustworthiness in the public’s eyes.
Yes, break the stranglehold of the MLS syndicate. Free realtors and the buying public from oppression by the hierarchy in control. In tough times, the last thing a realtor needs is to be forced to pay such ridiculously exorbitant fees to a pompous MLS and local real estate boards, not to mention the rip-off by cities charging every agent for a business license when one fee from the brokerage office should suffice.