About the NAR

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) is a “trade association” composed of real estate agents.

How do you join the NAR?

Pay your dues, and pledge to uphold the Realtor Code of Ethics.

That’s about it.

What do you get for joining?

The right to call yourself a Realtor (just don’t put the “R word” in your domain name…). And you get goofy, sometimes awful advertising on your behalf.

Oh, and you get a magazine.

You get the opportunity to donate to RPAC, the NAR’s political action committee.

There’s supposedly more. Here’s the full list from the NAR site.

What they fail to mention is you have to join the NAR if you want access to the MLS.

And if you’re really curious, here is the NAR’s Mission and Vision statement. Straight out of a Dilbert cartoon.

NAR’s Mission and Vision

Mission
The core purpose of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® is to help its members become more profitable and successful.

Vision
The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® strives to be the collective force influencing and shaping the real estate industry. It seeks to be the leading advocate of the right to own, use, and transfer real property; the acknowledged leader in developing standards for efficient, effective, and ethical real estate business practices; and valued by highly skilled real estate professionals and viewed by them as crucial to their success.

Working on behalf of America’s property owners, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® provides a facility for professional development, research and exchange of information among its members and to the public and government for the purpose of preserving the free enterprise system, and the right to own, use, and transfer real property.