The confluence of events:
Last week I received a lead from our lead generation system. I had only a name and email address: she wanted info on three listings, then two more, then the next day seven more, each emailed separately. There was no contact number, only her email address, and it turned out she wasn’t really in the market to buy, just curious. And: all she wanted were the addresses, was more than a little annoyed – so was I – she had to jump through hoops to get them. Damned REALTORS®!
Monday I was in a meeting to introduce our new company web site, including a new property search engine. The mock up included maps, street view and… addresses! Transparency; terrific! But, no, sorry, that’s not a real fixture. Apparently that’s against the bylaws of one of the five MLSs we deal with; “Besides, we want to give a reason for the phone to ring!” See above.
Then last night – after fifty plus sugared up munchkins – I opened my annual Portland Metropolitan Association of Realtors bill, which includes dues for PMAR, OAR, and NAR. Last year it was $343, and this year: $459. For those who dabble in percentages, that’s a 34% increase.
The stated reason: A $100 ‘special assessment’ to OAR:
The Public Awareness Campaign is an integrated program designed to address multiple issues facing the real estate industry in Oregon as a result of extreme changes in the real estate market including the sub-prime mortgage crisis, the threat of an initiative petition to give unfair advantage to a new MLS provider and the ongoing threat of a real estate transfer tax.
The Public Awareness Campaign special assessment will accomplish two goals – it will fund the specific campaign to raise the profile and enhance the image of our Members [sic] in the eyes of the public, and it will make available the necessary funds to educate the public regarding initiative petition issues that impact the real estate industry and consumers in Oregon.
So that’s a $2 million confiscation, not to study and/or implement ways to make agents more efficient, to make us even better at what we do, but for PR. Happy talk. Could rank up there with NAR talking points in effectiveness.
And the central focus of that PR, the reason for the knee jerk fear and trepidation? Dave Barry and his ‘Open MLS’ movement, the same Dave Barry that Russell folded and spindled back in April.
Oregon is an initiative petition state – enough signatures and it’s on the ballot – a concept that terrifies those who think their rightful place is in telling the rest of us how to behave. Maine is also an initiative state, and is 12,000 signatures shy of having an ‘Open MLS’ initiative on the 2008 ballot. But that initiative is so bad – see it here – even if it gets the signatures it has little chance of passing, and even if it passes little chance of successful implementation. It does absolutely nothing to favor the consumer, and is transparently designed to take money from MLSs and all the ‘*AR’s of the world and put it in Dave Barry’s pocket. It’s tough to get something on the ballot in Oregon, and that one wouldn’t stand a chance.
But here’s what makes me nuts: If I were Dave Barry pushing for signatures in Oregon, the first thing I’d do is take out an ad saying “The real estate industry is so afraid of you having rights as a consumer they even charged their members $100 each to combat it! And, look: they won’t even let you find an address online!”
OAR is charging me $100 to reinforce the same stereotype Dave Barry’s pushing. Brilliant.
We need reform. We need transparency. What’s not going to get us there is either happy talk paid for with confiscatory dues…
…or Dave Barry.
PS Dear PMAR: You want to avoid Dave Barrys in the future? Divorce commissions.
Brian Brady says:
I know that this may seem like a dumb question, but what’s to stop the big brokerages from withdrawing from the “Open MLS” and creating their own information sharing system?
November 1, 2007 — 11:24 pm
Ann Cummings says:
Hi Jeff,
I know the Maine Association has been fighting hard to keep that off the ballot. I’m a licensed Broker in both Maine and New Hampshire, and they’ve been fighting that fight for awhile now. So far, it looks like they’ll succeed, but it hasn’t been without MUCH effort from the Association staff and leaders, and plenty of its members. They’ve done a great job getting the word out, and that takes time, effort and money. It’s definitely a fight worth fighting in my opinion.
As REALTORS, we KNOW the initiative is bad, but consumers may not understand it like we do. IF it does make it to the ballot, it shouldn’t pass, but consumers don’t understand the issues on this one like we do. They may just vote for it based on Barry’s spin, and then you have the ‘intended consequences’ that Dave Barry wants, and the ‘unintended consequences’ that will be difficult at best to deal with.
November 2, 2007 — 3:44 am
Corey from BuyHomes.com says:
You can’t show addresses on your company website? Wow man, that’s a repressive set of IDX rules you must follow there! The problem with this industry is that it fails to be consistent with it’s arguments for fairness. The FTC and DOJ are doing a great job leveling the playing field only because the Associations act like they are owned & operated by the Traditional full-price full-service business model. A true ‘association’ will present all marketplace options in a positive light explaining the advantages of each and how consumers should asess what service is right for them. A truely fair MLS will allow brokers to display addresses and innovate in the marketplace while respecting disclsoures so agents understand what level of service they may need to provide to their clients – without making those fields searchable which is a tactic to allow the back-door boycott of new business models from their home searches sent to the consumer. OpenMLS would not need to exist if we Realtors were really interested in creating efficiencies thru the use of technology AND stop acting like sales-agents and start acting like fiduciaries for our clients, and consultants for our customers. If NAR looses the DOJ lawsuit I sure hope we all realize that (lobbying) power is no match for free-market innovation. Collusion by any other name with a wink/nod from those making the rules is no different than organized crime, Really.
November 2, 2007 — 7:09 am
Jeff Kempe says:
Brian …
The anchor of Barry’s plan isn’t IDX feed, but this line mandated to be in every listing agreement:
E. A separate paragraph in 14-point bold type stating, “The client entering into this agreement DOES / DOES NOT direct the real estate brokerage agency to place a complete listing of this property into the open MLS within 24 hours.”;
Thus he assumes, likely having consulted bubbleheads, that the public will FORCE the large brokerages to to comply; cooperation by fiat.
I don’t think it will work, and if I had my bet as to who could set up a more consumer friendly system – Dave Barry or Dave Liniger – I’d go with Dave Liniger in a heartbeat.
November 2, 2007 — 7:56 am
Jeff Kempe says:
Ann …
I have much more faith in the marketplace – people – than most. They’re simply not as stupid as many think. The Maine initiative is, well, insane, and so transparently self serving that it would die without a whisper absent opposition panic. All a massive campaign will do is open realtors to the counter charge of venal self interest.
I’d much rather see PMAR and other associations – and I’d be happy to voluntarily contribute – put money into fixing very real problems that do exist, rather than to talk as if they didn’t.
November 2, 2007 — 9:56 am
Jeff Kempe says:
Corey …
The DOJ and FTC are tilting at windmills, doing precisely nothing to help the consumer, in fact making things worse. Enforcing law on the back of a vague stereotype is never good policy, but one bureaucrats employ because it’s easy and looks like they’re actually doing something.
Our challenge as an industry is that, on the one hand, we have the David Barrys and the DOJ – talking about how bad things are – and on the other we have the NAR, MLSs and various associations – talking about how good things are. No one’s actually doing anything to fix the problems.
One of the problems, as you point out, is the defensive hoarding of information, which only serves to reinforce the fallacy that my worth is in its access, rather than its interpretation and proper application. I can buy a Grey’s Anatomy at any Borders, but I’m still in the doctor’s office when I have chest pain.
Change is going to come from the bottom up, from the players; BHB is on the cutting edge of that.
November 2, 2007 — 10:13 am
Corey from BuyHomes.com says:
I agree there is value in interpreting the data when that sort of thing is needed which is not every transaction. Brokers such as myself need to realize we are not going to take over the world. I see market segments forming maybe my type of business will be 10-20% and maybe full-service will go down to 50% but that will take years as all change does.
Regarding the DOJ and FTC; I feel Im in business today because of Washingtons involvement in real estate competition. IN 2003 when my MLS director notified me that his legal counsel determined our company listings were exclusive agency and they may no longer be placed on Realtor.com – the FTC is who I called. They didn’t act for just me.
Then new IDX rules were going to allow certain brokers to remove my listings from the Broker-Reciprocity feed and enable brokers to force me to remove Reciprocity listings from my company website. Then somehow this lawsuit happened.
There’s a lot of new competition out there simply because a lot of old competition are sitting on their hands and resisting the urge to squish us until this lawsuit is over.
If thats tilting at windmills, I hope they score in a way that extends the current competitive umbrella beyond this lawsuit. Im living the impossible dream thanks to the Feds!
November 2, 2007 — 1:47 pm
Ann Cummings says:
Jeff – the Maine initiative is insane and VERY self-serving. I didn’t mean to imply that I consider the public to be stupid. I did mean to say that with Mr. Barry’s spin machine, the issues become clouded with his hidden bit of self-serving “consumer friendly” MLS.
We all live with spin in just about everything we hear and see, and this is no different. Maine voters aren’t stupid at all. His push is not as clear to the public as it seems to us, because we understand it – the words, the issues, the hidden agendas, etc.
Living right here on the Maine/New Hampshire border, I’ve seen the articles in the paper, and I’ve heard the snippets on the radio and on the TV that Mr. Barry has put out there. Clear, to most of the public, it isn’t.
And I’d put ALL my money on Dave Liniger without a second thought!! I am with RE/MAX, but even if I weren’t and it was between those two, no question I’d choose Dave Liniger.
November 2, 2007 — 1:59 pm
Corey from BuyHomes.com says:
As I recall Dave Liniger is one of those who is on record making positive comments regarding the now-defunct IDX rules which are the source of the DOJ anti-trust lawsuit.
There is no choice between David Barry and David Liniger, both are completely biased and both would end free-market innovations in the real estate industry. Barry for socialism and Liniger for mercantilism.
I’d look for a new leader, perhaps out of the RETS movement which is just about to take off now that it’s governed by an independent body.
November 2, 2007 — 2:19 pm
Spokane Realtor says:
Well, I don’t know the details of what Barry is doing, but 2 things, one is that the NAR and MLS setups are not good the way they are structured. I shouldn’t have to pay $100 extra so they can run a campaign to defend their brand when in reality Realtor should not be a trademark because they can’t defend it. The public thinks it means someone who sells real estate. They take money from the members to try and differentiate it in the public’s eyes and then use that against realtors who try and use the title. I hope they lose that battle and they put a stop to the increase int heir fees for basically nothing.
As far as discount brokers I have said it before, the no service model should not be legal, there needs to be a standard level of service or why did I get a license. If you want to bundle less service is one thing, but If I have to present the offer to your client and hold the deal together and increase my liability then that should be stopped. You can charge what you want but when you basicaaly do nothing and let them go FSBO under your name this should be stopped it puts the public in danger by not having any representation.
October 3, 2008 — 8:44 am