Realtor conflict of interest: The Dept. of Justice vs. The National Association of Realtors. The R/E Maven

 

 

 

Realtors are supposed to have a fiduciary relationship with buyers or sellers of real estate. They are sworn to uphold this capacity and work in the best interest of either the buyer or the seller. That is to place the best interest of the buyer or seller first, above their best interest.

 

Interestingly, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) choose to fight the government long and hard to prevent other brokers from modernizing the sales system through some new marketing capabilities of the Internet.

 

The Multiple Listing Service was built upon the premise that Agents and brokers would cooperate and have equal access to sell one another’s inventory.

In the proposed settlement between the Dept. of Justice vs. The National Association of Realtors, President Richard Gaylord recently announced, “the settlement affirms the value of Multiple Listing Services as a tool of broker-to-broker cooperation.” But this is exactly one of the reasons why the Department of Justice (at the expense of the American public) had to file an antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of Realtors in the first place. The NAR was blocking the equal opportunity use of the MLS system by virtual office (Internet) brokers. They were not letting every broker use the tools Mr. Gaylord claims are of such value to share broker-to-broker.

Mr. Gaylord is taking credit for bring about the very change that he and the NAR were trying to stop and had to be forced to allow. It seems rather hypocritical to run an organization and system, that functions on member cooperation, to then only turn around and prevent this same cooperation. Then for the sake of public relations, the NAR claims victory over the government when it was the government that actually had to force them into this cooperation. And at a cost of how many thousands of dollars out of the taxpayers pockets for them to attempt to do business in a self-serving fashion.

Who’s kidding whom?

The national Association of Realtors took money away from the taxpayers of this country in order to protect their own pocketbooks and then, they want to look like the good guys when they loose the fight. This proposed settlement will bring about change to enable competition, perhaps resulting in lower commission rates and this is what the fight was truly over, the NAR wanted to keep commission rates higher. Not helping the consumers as Mr. Gaylord had the Audacity to announce. This is a conflict of interest. The National Association of Realtor’s interest above all others.

 

It is sad to see the MLS has become such a dinosaur but with this attitude it is small wonder why. They survive because they are the giant but so was Tyrannosaurus Rex. Instead of embracing the capabilities of the Internet they have once again spent years and the taxpayers money being greedy obstructionists to advancement. It seems they have been so bust fighting the inclusion of others that they lost sight in their own system.

 

 

 

 

Real estate marketing advice: Check up on your Realtor and review your online listing information. The R/E Maven

 

 

Please go to www.realtor.com and lookup MLS#754553. It happens to be an oceanfront property for sale with an asking price of $10,250,000. It is known as “Seaweed” and is located in Newport Rhode Island somewhere in the Ocean Avenue area.

 

What is so special about this listing that I ask you go view it for yourselves? Namely what the heck is this Realtor attempting to sell for more than 10 million dollars? I cannot tell. There is only one Arial photo on the site and it is from hundreds of yards away. I’ll bet this property has all sorts of great and interesting character but I have to use my imagination to fully enjoy the experience of its architecture.

What are the seller or this agent thinking by making such a marketing 101 mistake?

Is this the agent’s fault? Is he perhaps too lazy or cheap to have some class A photography performed and shared. Or is it more than likely at the seller direction that buyers are to be left to guess what 10 million dollars will buy. Could it be that the seller’s ego so far out of line that they believe this one poor photo is good enough and why did not the agent demand better for all his marketing efforts. There is no answer good to these questions to justify this mistake.

My point to all of this is to demonstrate to other sellers that they should not be intimidated as to whether they are capable of marketing their own property. If this type real estate can suffer through this type of marketing with the assistance of a real estate professional then you can feel good about your own marketing efforts without an agent.

With the enormous exposure possibilities of the Internet sellers need visit the most popular sites and check and see that their Realtor has their listing located there and that all its information is correct and valuable.

Oh and one last thing, did you notice that the address to this property on the Multiple Listing Service is kind of a secret?

 

 

Real estate marketing advice: Mortgage pre-qualification. The R/E Maven

 

 

The real estate industry has created many phenomenon’s and one of them happens to be the mortgage pre-qualification letter.

 

With so much at stake for seller’s it is hard for me to report that my real estate marketing advise this week is that mortgage pre-qualification letters are not worth the waste of a good piece of paper and should be totally disregarded.

Anyone’s cousin or any lending institution can simply rush what Realtors refer to as a “pre-qual letter” out the door to a well meaning (or otherwise) buyer to give a seller some comfort. These letters are meant to put the seller at ease that the buyer’s finances look favorable for a mortgage loan.

Sellers do not be deceived because pre-qualification letters are completely meaningless!

Most lenders simply take some very sketchy information from the buyer and then spit a letter that the buyer appears to be qualified for a mortgage. But if you take the time to read the fine print you shall see that the lender includes all sorts of language cautioning the reader that the letter is in fact too premature for them to guarantee that the buyer will in fact ever qualify for a loan now or at a later date. Pre-qualification letters are not based on any confirmed information, they are a dime a dozen and are at best should be considered smoke and mirrors.

 

 

What a seller needs in order to feel good about the chances of any given buyer’s ability to get financed is an actual mortgage commitment. A seller needs to see and review the commitment itself. Does the commitment contain conditions or is it an unconditional commitment. An unconditional commitment is what a seller desires and until one is received a seller needs to limit the amount of time that they are willing to take their property off the market for.