I Made a Mistake
In Sunday’s post, “NAR’s Shiny New ‘Assessment Fee’“, I made a glaring error.
The assessment fee is not new. It has apparently been around for 10 years. My bad, and I should have checked the facts before posting that.
This morning, I received an email from someone in the industry. The writer talked about my general “tone” on NAR related posts and at the same time freely admitted the NAR needs to reach out and is not a perfect organization. I appreciate them taking the time to write and to express their opinion. They mentioned one thing that bothered me:
“. . . and the fact that you rarely seem to check the facts before you fly off the handle, it’s hard to see you and some other bloggers as credible.”
I implore this emailer not to take my error, lump in other bloggers and question their credibility. This was my error, and mine alone. Selfishly, I’d also challenge the writer to review any of the hundreds of posts on my own blog, or the countless posts and comments I’ve left on other blogs and forums. I won’t be so bold as to say I’ve never made a mistake in the past, but I will say with confidence that it rarely happens and I normally do a much better job on fact-checking than I did on this particular post.
Certainly there are many of the 71,000,000 bloggers in the world that lack credibility. But of the hundreds of real estate webloggers out there, I think most are quite credible and do a great job.
But we are human, and we make mistakes. Myself included.
NARWisdom is not a “bash the NAR at all costs” weblog. I created it as an open venue to discuss the NAR — the good and the bad. And yes, there is good. As previously posted here, anyone is welcome to register on this blog, where you will immediately have “contributor” access and the ability to post your thoughts and opinions. Other than blatant spam and self-promotion, nothing will be edited/censored.
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Dalton Gets… Something… from the NAR
Jonathan Dalton has posted a series of three blog posts that outline some communication he’s received directly from both the NAR President and the Senior VP of “Convention and Communication” with regard to the mysterious $30 “assessment” that is popping up on realtor’s dues bills for the “public awareness campaign”.
These are required reading folks:
NAR’s Public Awareness Campaign
NAR and Me: One of Us Has to Be Out of Touch
Response from NAR About the Public Awareness Campaign
Edited to add: The NAR is telling Jonathan this assessment fee has been required in the past. It’s the first time I recall seeing it, but I don’t pay a lot of attention. I just write the check — I have no other choice.
Anyone out there have an old statement they can verify whether or not this fee has been added on before?
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The NAR’s Code of Ethics. It’s a Lengthy Tome
I put up a post on Bloodhound Blog today about the Code of Ethics.
My question is this:
Likely anyone reading here reads Bloodhound as well. But if not…
Thoughts?
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NAR’s Shiny New “Assessment Fee”
Earlier this week, Benn Rosales noted on AgentGenius that he received a $30 fee from the NAR on his annual dues bill. The fee was labeled, “NAR Image Campaign”. Benn’s local association slapped an additional “image fee” on him as well.
Knowing I was soon to get my dues statement and bill, I waited with breathless anticipation.
Well, it arrived Friday…
NAR Dues $80.00
Local Dues $115.00
State Dues $150.00
NAR Assessment Fee $30.00
RPAC Survival Fee $30.00 (voluntary)
Total due = $405 (doubled for my family since the wife is a realtor too). But hey, it’s two bucks cheaper than my buds in Austin are paying. That and another 3 bucks will get me a Starbucks.
The letter that came with the bill had this to say about the NAR Assessment Fee:
The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) has increased their dues to $80, plus the $30 NAR Assessment fee embarked to fund the successful Public Awareness Campaign. This campaign aggressively promotes the REALTOR image in the public’s eye.
What a load of crap.
Let’s see…. 1.4 million members x $30 = $42,000,000. That’s a heck of a campaign.
And this comes just a week or so after the NAR’s decision to spend $15,000,000 on a credit union.
I can hardly wait to see the $42 million aggressive public awareness campaign. Or has this money already been spent telling everyone, “it’s a great time to buy or sell a home” or putting the kid on a swing?
What is also going to be interesting is to see how many people bail out of the industry rather than writing a $400 check. It’s been a rough year for a lot of agents…
Note: the “RPAC Survival Fee” pertains to my local Realtor Political Action Committee. They conveniently make it quite simple to pay, and not so simple to “unvolunteer”. But I’ve got that down to a science.
“Survival Fee”??? WTF??? Can they not survive without my money, or am I supposed to believe I can’t survive without them?
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Others Opine on the NAR Convention
Lots of blog posts beginning to roll in.
Diane Cohn managed to tap my brain somehow and capture my thoughts perfectly.
Daniel Rothamel has a ton of coverage.
Three survivors discuss things on the newly minted BloodhoundBlog.TV.
The usual all-powerful thoughts of Joel Burslem.
John Novak from ActiveRain has a few more links and is compiling others.
(And look for some “on the street” stuff on Inman TV soon I suspect. Including a little chat with yours truly with thoughts on this very blog — assuming they don’t wind up on the cutting room floor)
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Back from the NAR Convention and Expo
Four days in Las Vegas, 30,000 real estate agents, parties and receptions, and I don’t know how many real estate related vendors at the Expo/trade show.
It was a long week.
I opted not to attend any of the conference sessions. Instead, I spent my time on the Expo floor, engaging with vendors and agents alike. It was a great opportunity to network — making new connections and meeting people I’d known for a long time on-line, but never met face-t0-face.
This was my first NAR convention, so I have nothing to compare it to. I couldn’t tell you if this years convention/expo was bigger, smaller, or anything else when compared to previous shows.
But I can share a few observations….
I’m 47 years old. And often I felt like I was on the young side of the attendees. I’ve got no data to support this, but I can tell you from observing there weren’t a whole lot of the “Gen X & Y” Realtors there.
There are a lot of vendors hawking wares that are very old school. If you want to find postcards, newsletters, sports schedules, pens, even cold-calling scripts — there are plenty of vendors that will gladly sell you enough bling to cover every refrigerator between here and Timbuktu. And judging from the numbers packed around these booths, the vendors don’t have to worry yet about technology running them out of business.
Clearly many agents “get” technology — websites, blogs, listing syndication, and more. I think there is a significant segment of the agent population clamoring for “how to” information when it comes to implementing technology in their business. They are aware, they know they need it, they just don’t know how to do it. This is one place the NAR could really help a sizable portion of their membership.
But what was even more clear to me was how many had very little knowledge about “web 1.0″ much less “web 2.0″. While I find it incomprehensible, it was abundantly apparent that many of those in attendance had never heard of Zillow, Trulia, vFlyer, etc. I’m not saying they have never been to these sites, or formed an opinion of their usefulness, I’m saying they have no idea they even exist. If one is a sworn Luddite, that’s fine. But really, you ought to at least acknowledge that technology exists and do what you need to do to at least get a basic grasp of what is out there. Seems this would be another education target for the NAR. Though in the NAR’s defense, is it really their job to tell an agent everything?
Off to Vegas for the NAR Convention
About to leave for NAR Vegas.
If you want to follow along, several in the RE.net are posting NAR updates here.
I’ll be “tweeting” on Twitter here.
More to follow, I’m sure…
Meanwhile, read this from Jonathan Dalton.:
The Truth About NAR and Real Estate Licensing
It’s NAR “Designation Awareness Month”!
I didn’t even know until I got this spam e-Pro ad plea for more money email.
Dear Member,In honor of THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®’ Designation Awareness Month, NAR is extending a special offer to members who enroll in the e-PRO® certification course in November. Register by November 30 at http://DesignationAwareness.eProNAR.comto save $25 off the registration fee and receive an additional two months to complete the course!
It goes on and on.
What exactly is the point in a “Designation Awareness Month”? Does the “Pro” in “e-PRO” have TO BE IN ALL CAPS?
If you’re interested in getting the e-PRO designation at the reduced price of $334 (save 25 dollars!) more info is here.
The NAR Puts a Kid on a Swing
To counter recent negative housing reports in the media, NAR is helping local REALTOR® associations across the country explain the real facts behind the real estate market in their area.
NAR has created a print ad that targets potential home buyers, educating them about the long-term value of housing and providing insight into local real estate markets to help buyers make informed decisions about what can be the biggest investment opportunity of their lives.
A full-page version of the ad will run in USA Today on November 2 and November 9, 2007. Local versions of the ad will run in select markets nationwide on November 4 and November 11, 2007.
Click here for the add in all its glory.
I wonder what this gem cost? Anyone know what full page ads in the USA Today go for?
Here’s what the Motley Fool has to say about it.
This is a typical bromide from the trade group that brought us a never-ending supply of optimistic spin, encouraging people to buy homes as “investments,” no matter how over-inflated they were, no matter how bad the financing was. (Hey, you can’t blame them. They just want their 6% cut on the biggest financial transaction in your life.)
Like much of the general population, they assume Realtors, all Realtors, support ads like this. And I can understand why. After all, it is OUR trade group putting out this drivel. The Fool probably thinks (like many do) that we have some sort of say in what the NAR rolls out.
Thanks NAR, for continuing to improve the public perception of Realtors.
NAR Names Lawrence Yun Chief Economist
I suspect a lot of people assumed Lawrence Yun already was the “Chief Economist” for the NAR. But until today he was actually the NAR’s senior, not chief, economist.
What’s the difference? I dunno. Yun was a VP and senior economist. Now he’s a Senior VP and Chief Economist. I suspect the impact to Yun’s paycheck is significant. I doubt it will change much what he does for the NAR, nor his semi-regular proclamations about the state of real estate.
“He is a no-nonsense and level-headed analyst of the housing market who calls the data as he sees it, and has guided NAR with skill as chief spokesman for the past several months in a competitive real estate market. We have great faith and trust that Lawrence’s tenure will be a stellar one that will enhance NAR’s reputation as the most reliable and credible source of real estate research.”
Whatever.