[Ryan Ward]

Has anyone considered that they could set themselves up for a lawsuit based on their rules by creating an anti-competitive environment for its own members?

Essentially they are dissallowing their own members to compete with non-members.

[Bigtoe]

Originally Posted by Ryan Ward

Has anyone considered that they could set themselves up for a lawsuit based on their rules by creating an anti-competitive environment for its own members?

Essentially they are dissallowing their own members to compete with non-members.

Way ahead of you. If it comes down to it I am ready to pay a lawyer to fight it and I think the DOJ would intervene on my side. This is restraint of trade anyway you look at it.

1. Those without effective websites penalizing those of us with effective websites

2. It is quite possible that some of the people involved with this decision have ties to the lead generating companies who stand to make a windfall off of this decision.

[svrpaul]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Dona

@SVRPaul

Ain't it amazing what with a little bit of research you can find out about who is leading who here with regards to these changes.

Especially after reading this --> http://library.corporate-ir.net/libr...10K_030507.pdf

And This:

http://www.realtor.org/realtororg.nsf/files/2006_nar_annual_report.pdf/$FILE/2006_nar_annual_report.pdf

It'll open your eyes and provide some really good questions to ask in a blog.

Is that correct that NAR has a 15% ownership in Move? (Pg. 25 of the Move Financials.) In 2006, Move had a net income of $22 Million and NAR devoted over $2,000,000 to promote it?

And, according to the Move annual report, they are going to get more local and target communities for increased advertising sources. The referral site mentioned in a previous post that has MLS Data advertised on it is owned by Top Producer -- a company owned by MOVE.

Once again, these amendments do not really affect me since our MLS already had some similar rules in place that have recently been amended, which will probably be amended again due to the newest amendments.

But.... I do think that the ties the "MLS Consultant" has should have been openly disclosed.

I think that anybody who has IDX capabilities on their sites understand the importance of this. And those of you who have city name MLS in your domain names certainly understand this.

I also think that the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cendant (Realogy) interest in Move and the relationship/ties to NAR is interesting.

According to --> http://sec.edgar-online.com/2007/04/...8/Section4.asp on the top of page 5.

The NAR has informed us that it intends to elect Thomas M. Stevens as its
representative to serve on our board of directors effective as of Mr. Yassky's
resignation. If so elected, Mr. Stevens will become a Class I director. Mr.
Stevens is 57 and currently serves as senior vice president for NRT
Incorporated/Realogy, a residential real estate brokerage, and was elected as
president of the NAR for the 2006 term. Prior to his appointment as senior vice
president of business development for NRT Incorporated/ Realogy, Mr. Stevens
served as senior vice president for the Mid-Atlantic region and president and
chief operating officer of NRT's operations in Washington, D.C. and Virginia,
overseeing the 90+ offices and more than 4,000 sales associates of the
organization, serving real estate consumers in Maryland, Virginia, Washington,
D.C. and Delaware.

Which takes me back to ---> http://www.realtor.org/realtororg.nsf/files/2006_nar_annual_report.pdf/$FILE/2006_nar_annual_report.pdf and something that caught my eye on page 13 which I thought was Odd:

Reaching Out to the Large Brokerage Community: NAR created
the Real Estate Services Task Force to identify and provide more
value to large brokerage firms and their core businesses, including
mortgage, title, and insurance endeavors. The task force has completed
extensive one-on-one interviews with more than 50 chief executives
of large brokerage firms to ascertain their needs and expectations
from NAR. In addition to negotiating strategic marketing
alliances and revenue sharing opportunities with the large brokers,
the task force worked to establish a cooperative venture with mortgage
companies. This work will allow large real estate firms to
streamline operations and increase capture rates. Additional cooperative
ventures with title insurance companies and other real
estate–related services are being explored for future development.
The task force will continue to identify services, tools, and strategic
relationships that will help expand and enhance the business interests
of large brokers and their agents.

That's interesting. I wonder how many of those brokerages charge their agents 50% commission splits for internet leads?

For anybody who follows the great writers over at BloodhoundBlog.com, some of those questions concerning individual agents having websites/blogs can certainly be very valid.

When we got out first website back in 2000, we never took an office lead (50% commission splits for office leads just was not very appealling) again or used a referral service. And.. after R.com raised their prices for something that in our opinion was a bad ROI compared to other avenues, we cut back on that too and only kept the enhanced listings feature.

Lost revenue for everybody above.

[svrpaul]

Wow -- sorry that was so long but I think there is more to the story then dinosaurs making decisions IMO.

The new changes taking place and the concern of "MLS" being a generic term after all of these years?

Sure -- it could be coincidence that it is just so happening during a year with an obvious decrease in revenues from slow real estate sales.

[Ryan Ward]

So the site is up and the petition is ready. Does anyone care to actually sign it? I will start a new thread tomorrow and I would like some additional suggestions before we go out and take this petition to our associates everywhere.

[jessiesc]

Here's a quick outline I drew up:

We, the following members of the National Association of REALTORS®, as well as customers of members of the National Association of REALTORS® are heartily in disagreement with the recent changes to the REALTOR code of ethics.

Specifically, Article: [insert article] as it pertains to the usage of the term MLS by members of the National Association of REALTORS®. We believe the passage of this article is not in the best interest of the members of the National Association of REALTORS® as it provides an anti-competitive environment for its own members.

This petition for the alteration of article [insert artice] of the Code of Ethics is in accordance with the general operating policies of the National Association of REALTORS®. In addition, we believe rescinding these changes to the National Association of REALTORS® Code of ethics is in the best interest of the members of the National Association of REALTORS® .

It is therefore respectfully requested that the Board of directors rescind this article to provide members the same level of competition within the Real Estate industry, from which non-members will continue to exploit.

[jessiesc]

Ok sheesh, finally found the article:

http://www.realtor.org/narcomar.nsf/...2573800058FDD1

[Ryan Ward]

In number 6, where it talks about section 4.4 they say this:

Participants, subscribers and licensees affiliated with participants shall not represent, suggest or imply that consumers or others have direct access to MLS databases,

Where on earth do they think I pulled that data from on my IDX if not from the MLS?

Perhaps I should make a statement that says in fact it is information from an MLS database - or do they want me to say something else?

These guys need some help on this. This is the group behind it:

NAR Internet Strategy/Technology Work Group

I will see if I can find who they are and how to contact them...anyone else is welcomed to find them as well.

[Benjamin Dona]

Ryan,

They actually do suggest what we should use i.e. IDX or Broker Reciprocity. The only problem is as you already know, who would search for those terms when looking for homes?

@Bigtoe

You are right. Hopefully with the petition, we'll get enough participation to make the DOJ take notice of what is going on.

[Ryan Ward]

Benjamin,

That would not be as accurate. The information is in fact from the MLS database. To say that it isn't would be incorrect. That data is MLS data from the MLS database. Period. It is distrubuted through IDX. Therefore, consumers do in fact have direct access to the MLS datasbase information. What is wrong with these people? I will try to find that info, but, I am quite busy today...