Dismantle the REALTOR Star Chamber

It is high time to reform the ethics hearing process top to bottom

Something that is becoming clearer with every person stepping forward to fight the injustice of the NAR Speech Code is that there is a fundamental systemic problem with how the Association handles ethics hearings. Every single person who spoke at the Texas Senate hearing talked about how their hearings and the appeals were show trials at best. What they faced was not an impartial tribunal interested in the truth but a Star Chamber that had already decided on an outcome.

I had heard horror stories over the years about the shortcomings in the ethics complaint process, but because literally everything about the process is shrouded in secrecy and confidentiality, there was no way to really check.

Well, thanks to a lawsuit in Arizona making the transcripts of hearings part of the public record, we now can get a glimpse into how these hearings go. What I discovered is… dismaying. When one digs into the detailed rules and procedures surrounding the ethics process, dismay turns into despair.

The entire system must be reformed root and branch. There are serious structural flaws in how the Code is supposed to be enforced.

Given that NAR itself might be a zombie shambling about, these ideas might be more suited to either large locals, state associations that may go their own way, or for whatever replaces NAR (or for the leaders who reform it from within) to consider.

However it is done, the industry must address this problem. It can do so on its own, without waiting for lawsuits, damages, and injunctions. Or it can do so after paying out millions in damages, and with a court looking over its shoulders.

I will attempt to illustrate how the current system and process are broken, then attempt to provide sensible reforms.

This is going to get long; you may need to come to the website to read the whole thing.