{"id":1929,"date":"2007-09-15T09:48:02","date_gmt":"2007-09-15T16:48:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/?p=1929"},"modified":"2007-09-15T10:23:19","modified_gmt":"2007-09-15T17:23:19","slug":"an-open-letter-to-the-technological-dinosaurs-who-presume-to-control-our-livelihoods","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1929\/an-open-letter-to-the-technological-dinosaurs-who-presume-to-control-our-livelihoods\/","title":{"rendered":"An open letter to the technological dinosaurs who presume to control our livelihoods"},"content":{"rendered":"

To: Ron LaMee
\nVP Information Services
\nArizona Association of Realtors<\/p>\n

Ron:<\/p>\n

Russell Shaw argues to me that I have been unfair to you, or at least unnecessarily rude. I don’t concede the point, but I am willing to elaborate on the issues at contest. In all honesty, I don’t expect anyone in my slice of the NAR cartel — the Phoenix Association of Realtors, the Arizona Association of Realtors, the National Association of Realtors, or the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service — to exhibit anything I would regard as an improvement, but it’s possible other, less-entrenched entities in other parts of the country can benefit from this discussion.<\/p>\n

Before we get started in earnest, I want you to take a look at this map-based MLS search interface<\/a>. Estately.com is my current pet, in no small measure because it integrates all kinds of neighborhood and transit information into its visual representation of MLS data. There are other cool tools out there: Windermere<\/a> has a very sexy map-based search. RE\/Max has a national MLS system, and Keller-Williams can’t be far behind in that regard. Even so, the market leaders for all of these very cool tools are third-party start-ups like Zillow.com<\/a> and Trulia.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I realize that much of the software I’m talking about is outside your immediate purview. The point is that traditional Realtors are sinking fast, technologically, and you<\/i>, Ron LaMee, are shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic while you try to hustle us into buying even more of the same obsolete crap we’re already drowning in.<\/p>\n

Criticism stings while you’re getting it, but, in fact, it is by addressing the specifics of criticism that we substantially improve our performance. Most people take what they get uncritically — they take crap because they expect crap — but a sincere, informed critic is the best goad a person or organization can have to get rid<\/i> of the crap in their product or service. Of course, most people and most organizations change nothing, preferring instead to resent the critic for exposing their crappy offerings to the light. In the free market, these problems are eventually corrected by auctioneers. It remains to Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To: Ron LaMee VP Information Services Arizona Association of Realtors Ron: Russell Shaw argues to me that I have been unfair to you, or at least unnecessarily rude. I don’t concede the point, but I am willing to elaborate on the issues at contest. In all honesty, I don’t expect anyone in my slice of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,30,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1929","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"hentry","6":"category-marketing","7":"category-real-estate","8":"category-supplanting-the-nar","9":"category-technology","11":"no-featured-image"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":832,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/832\/nar-dead-pool\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":0},"title":"NAR dead pool . . . ?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"January 1, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the things Cathy did yesterday between finishing her real estate work and popping the cork on the champagne (she makes me do that, of course), was paying our dues. Not figuratively -- literally. Yesterday was the deadline to pay the following creditors:Phoenix Association of RealtorsArizona Association of RealtorsNational\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15293,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15293\/hey-ron-phipps-i-say-the-national-association-of-realtors-is-a-rent-seeking-rotarian-socialist-conspiracy-against-the-american-consumer-can-you-offer-even-one-argument-to-refute-that-claim\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":1},"title":"Hey, Ron Phipps: I say the National Association of Realtors is a rent-seeking Rotarian Socialist conspiracy against the American consumer. Can you offer even one argument to refute that claim?","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"My friend and partner, the ever-more-Unchained Brian Brady, posted a Facebook link to a Wall Street Journal article on the current push by the National Association of Realtors for extended loan subsidies for the rich:To understand why 90% of U.S. mortgages are still underwritten by taxpayers, look no further than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15110,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/15110\/sevrar-puts-the-brakes-on-armls-ber-alles-at-least-for-now-arizona-wide-mls-hits-a-roadblock\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":2},"title":"SEVRAR puts the brakes on ARMLS \u00fcber alles, at least for now: Arizona-wide MLS hits a roadblock.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"September 15, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote about this in July: The Arizona Association of Realtors wants to buy ARMLS, the Phoenix-area MLS system, in order to create a statewide MLS. This looked like the kind of sleazy insider self-dealing we have come to expect from Associations of Realtors, so I had assumed it was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17472,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/17472\/overnight-news-nar-goes-grasshopper-bans-brains-ants-to-respond-accordingly\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":3},"title":"Overnight News: NAR goes Grasshopper, bans brains. Ants to respond accordingly.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"November 14, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"After watching one huge national institution after another destroy itself embracing woke politics, the National Association of Realtors yesterday put itself into the speech-code business. Smooth move. The NAR is a cabal of rent-seeking morons. They want to regulate speech as yet another way to eliminate smarter competition. The purpose\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ya think it's easy?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/BHBNewTopImage-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19291,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/19291\/attn-national-association-of-realtors-you-cannot-go-to-hell-fast-enough-for-me\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":4},"title":"Attn. National Association of Realtors: You cannot go to hell fast enough for me.","author":"Greg Swann","date":"December 26, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cBaby, now that I've found you, I can't let you go. I'll build my world around you. I need you so, baby, even though you don't need me. You don't need me...\u201d If you follow the news, you may think of the National Association of Realtors as being a hotbed\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Group Therapy"","block_context":{"text":"Group Therapy","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/group-therapy\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/NAR-no-more.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/NAR-no-more.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/NAR-no-more.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/NAR-no-more.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/NAR-no-more.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1870,"url":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/1870\/burn-down-the-mission-elton-john-reads-the-tumbleweed-manifesto-to-the-national-association-of-realtors\/","url_meta":{"origin":1929,"position":5},"title":"Burn Down the Mission: Elton John reads the Tumbleweed Manifesto to the National Association of Realtors","author":"Greg Swann","date":"August 30, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'll have more later, but of all the many reasons the NAR deserves to be disintermediated, perhaps the simplest and most obvious is that these congenital retards cannot catch the frolickin' Cluetrain. \u00a0More viewpoints, pro and con, on supplanting the NAR: < ?php c2c_get_recent_posts(9999, \"%post_URL%\", '30'); ?> Technorati Tags: disintermediation,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Marketing"","block_context":{"text":"Marketing","link":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/category\/marketing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1929"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloodhoundrealty.com\/BloodhoundBlog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}