Rob, as a former VP of Communications at NAR, I thought my perspective might have some value here. First, I'm sure everyone working in communications at NAR would be impressed that they have so much power within NAR as to control every message. The truth is communications rarely sets the messaging. In the commission lawsuits the messaging is driven by the Leadership Team, Chief Legal Officer and the CEO. Second, your issue with the communications is far less about the form (Kevin's delivery, whether its green screen) and far more about the message. I'll be the first to agree with you that NAR's messaging throughout the commission lawsuits insulted the intelligence of their members by never leveling with them. It is important to rally members during difficult times, however, NAR just pushed out rosy "we got this," "Nothing to worry about" "hope will never be silent," messages. These messages went beyond tone-deaf. It was messaging malpractice. Third, while you thought Kevin's video was a failure, I thought it was NAR doing its best to level with its members. Does it answer every question? No, but it was far better than "hope is never silent. Finally, NAR as a culture is not prepared for the threat that commission lawsuits presented. NAR is largely able to throw money at a problem and it will go away. They couldn't do that this time. While NAR has many smart people who could see through to the other side of the lawsuits, as an organization and a culture, it is not in their DNA. The failure here is not at the communications level, it is at the messaging level. Those are two very different areas at NAR. NAR will come out of this for the better but, only as you say, if they are honest and leave the rosy, insulting messages behind.
Start by trimming the 900 member board to about a dozen.
Don't make (REQUIRE) NAR dues to be mandatory and be paid to and by the local Realtors Associations. NAR should invoice agents directly to see who voluntarily wants in.
I would love to see NAR change its membership dues policy to be based on agent GCI. What would they look like if they only made money off of the agents that were actually doing the business? I'll bet that that would change how invested they were in helping the people that were actually performing in the business and create far better accountability. Just imagine what the top 5 % of agents paying him the largest amount of their income would have to say about the "We R Realtors" campaign because that was the other PR craptacular.
I am no advocate of NAR, they take, never adapted to the marketplace, and gave little back. To be fair, Sears has a lot more on his plate and given there is still pending litigation, he better be reading what the PR flacks and lawyers tell him to read as the current face of NAR. Ultimately, Sears volunteered to walk into a hot mess that is mostly out of his hands and ability to make real impact knowing it would be a thankless job. The what, where, and when will come soon enough once he’s told the answers by DOJ and others. By now, brokers know 90% of changes that need to be made and don’t need to wait until July to implement them. Many MLS’s have already generated the new forms with contract updates and other forms to follow over the next few months. At this point, leadership must come from the actual broker operators to prepare their teams. The best orator on the planet can’t lead for them.
I was president for our local Association in 2009 and then in 2015. I have served at the local level for decades now. Based on what I saw during my tenure, so many inconsistencies, the executive team pushing so many things that did not make sense and just didn’t add up. These decisions harmed their members. All of these things caused me to be disillusioned after each term that finally, when I termed out in 2016, I bowed out entirely. I have had a ongoing disdain NAR and CAR for the better part of the last 10 years. Poor leadership, wrong direction and a shadow of what they once were. I no longer see any CAR or NAR benefits that outweigh dues, costs etc.
NAR simply lacks the cognitive resources to solve not that complex problems. Answer this question: How in the fk does the chief legal counsel Katie Johnson still have a job. (Btw. She’s also head of member engagement, just who you want to be head of member engagement.. the lawyer) she lost the biggest case of a career, for the biggest trade association on the planet. Yet she’s still employed. That’s some leadership right there. Probably will get a pay bump.
How do we "burn down NAR" when the local MLS forces us to be a member in order to have access? Unlike commercial Realtors, we lose necessary exposure for our normal residential sellers if we can't list their properties in the MLS. Am I missing something? Is there a way for regular agents and brokers to change this juggernaut when we are all held hostage by it in order to do business?
I got into the business of real estate over 20 years ago. As soon as I got in I questioned the system. What does being a member of a trade organization have to do with connecting buyers and sellers (of anything) for a fee? I could never figure it out - still can't. It certainly made sense to have a central marketplace to clear the transactions, but why only one? Why so much control at the transaction level? Now that this line of thinking has become transparent (thanks to the Internet and the lawsuits) it has become abundantly clear the relationship between the trade group (NAR) and the central marketplace (MLS) has no real bearing (or need) on the down-and-dirty business of real estate - connecting buyers and sellers for a fee. This got me thinking some more (as of today). Who is at the very top of this exposure of this system (NAR and MLS)? It's the DOJ - the biggest of the big. With my roots in the business of Wall Street transactions it got me wondering if maybe, just maybe, it's these system similarities (connecting buyers and sellers) that got the attention of Washington and this pursuit may be much larger than this NAR/MLS dust up. So, I searched, "what is the trade organization for the stock market"? The answer? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I could be way off in the conspiratorium, but could the final, final, result of all this end up with organized real estate under the control of the biggest organization (SEC) leaving NAR as, well, a trade group and the MLS, just one of many marketplaces able to settle residential real estate transactions fairly? I'm learning whenever it's time to think, think bigger, then think even bigger. Just a thought. We'll see. Thanks, Brian
Rob, as a former VP of Communications at NAR, I thought my perspective might have some value here. First, I'm sure everyone working in communications at NAR would be impressed that they have so much power within NAR as to control every message. The truth is communications rarely sets the messaging. In the commission lawsuits the messaging is driven by the Leadership Team, Chief Legal Officer and the CEO. Second, your issue with the communications is far less about the form (Kevin's delivery, whether its green screen) and far more about the message. I'll be the first to agree with you that NAR's messaging throughout the commission lawsuits insulted the intelligence of their members by never leveling with them. It is important to rally members during difficult times, however, NAR just pushed out rosy "we got this," "Nothing to worry about" "hope will never be silent," messages. These messages went beyond tone-deaf. It was messaging malpractice. Third, while you thought Kevin's video was a failure, I thought it was NAR doing its best to level with its members. Does it answer every question? No, but it was far better than "hope is never silent. Finally, NAR as a culture is not prepared for the threat that commission lawsuits presented. NAR is largely able to throw money at a problem and it will go away. They couldn't do that this time. While NAR has many smart people who could see through to the other side of the lawsuits, as an organization and a culture, it is not in their DNA. The failure here is not at the communications level, it is at the messaging level. Those are two very different areas at NAR. NAR will come out of this for the better but, only as you say, if they are honest and leave the rosy, insulting messages behind.
Start by trimming the 900 member board to about a dozen.
Don't make (REQUIRE) NAR dues to be mandatory and be paid to and by the local Realtors Associations. NAR should invoice agents directly to see who voluntarily wants in.
I would love to see NAR change its membership dues policy to be based on agent GCI. What would they look like if they only made money off of the agents that were actually doing the business? I'll bet that that would change how invested they were in helping the people that were actually performing in the business and create far better accountability. Just imagine what the top 5 % of agents paying him the largest amount of their income would have to say about the "We R Realtors" campaign because that was the other PR craptacular.
I am no advocate of NAR, they take, never adapted to the marketplace, and gave little back. To be fair, Sears has a lot more on his plate and given there is still pending litigation, he better be reading what the PR flacks and lawyers tell him to read as the current face of NAR. Ultimately, Sears volunteered to walk into a hot mess that is mostly out of his hands and ability to make real impact knowing it would be a thankless job. The what, where, and when will come soon enough once he’s told the answers by DOJ and others. By now, brokers know 90% of changes that need to be made and don’t need to wait until July to implement them. Many MLS’s have already generated the new forms with contract updates and other forms to follow over the next few months. At this point, leadership must come from the actual broker operators to prepare their teams. The best orator on the planet can’t lead for them.
Love REALTORS...but struggle with NARs constraints. Great thoughts, Rob!!
I was president for our local Association in 2009 and then in 2015. I have served at the local level for decades now. Based on what I saw during my tenure, so many inconsistencies, the executive team pushing so many things that did not make sense and just didn’t add up. These decisions harmed their members. All of these things caused me to be disillusioned after each term that finally, when I termed out in 2016, I bowed out entirely. I have had a ongoing disdain NAR and CAR for the better part of the last 10 years. Poor leadership, wrong direction and a shadow of what they once were. I no longer see any CAR or NAR benefits that outweigh dues, costs etc.
NAR simply lacks the cognitive resources to solve not that complex problems. Answer this question: How in the fk does the chief legal counsel Katie Johnson still have a job. (Btw. She’s also head of member engagement, just who you want to be head of member engagement.. the lawyer) she lost the biggest case of a career, for the biggest trade association on the planet. Yet she’s still employed. That’s some leadership right there. Probably will get a pay bump.
How do we "burn down NAR" when the local MLS forces us to be a member in order to have access? Unlike commercial Realtors, we lose necessary exposure for our normal residential sellers if we can't list their properties in the MLS. Am I missing something? Is there a way for regular agents and brokers to change this juggernaut when we are all held hostage by it in order to do business?
I got into the business of real estate over 20 years ago. As soon as I got in I questioned the system. What does being a member of a trade organization have to do with connecting buyers and sellers (of anything) for a fee? I could never figure it out - still can't. It certainly made sense to have a central marketplace to clear the transactions, but why only one? Why so much control at the transaction level? Now that this line of thinking has become transparent (thanks to the Internet and the lawsuits) it has become abundantly clear the relationship between the trade group (NAR) and the central marketplace (MLS) has no real bearing (or need) on the down-and-dirty business of real estate - connecting buyers and sellers for a fee. This got me thinking some more (as of today). Who is at the very top of this exposure of this system (NAR and MLS)? It's the DOJ - the biggest of the big. With my roots in the business of Wall Street transactions it got me wondering if maybe, just maybe, it's these system similarities (connecting buyers and sellers) that got the attention of Washington and this pursuit may be much larger than this NAR/MLS dust up. So, I searched, "what is the trade organization for the stock market"? The answer? The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). I could be way off in the conspiratorium, but could the final, final, result of all this end up with organized real estate under the control of the biggest organization (SEC) leaving NAR as, well, a trade group and the MLS, just one of many marketplaces able to settle residential real estate transactions fairly? I'm learning whenever it's time to think, think bigger, then think even bigger. Just a thought. We'll see. Thanks, Brian