The Real Estate Blog Community on the NAR/DOJ Settlement
I suspect by now anyone that reads this blog has already heard the news about the proposed settlement in the NAR/DOJ lawsuit.
Here is the proposed settlement in its entirety.
Opinions from the real estate side seem to be mostly summed up in a few words like — so what, yawn, and no longer truly relevant.
Some bubbleheads are ecstatic, apparently not reading any of the actual settlement and jumping to the conclusion that the DOJ is shutting down all the hated Realtors. How many of them really understand what a VOW is, or the ILD policy? Methinks none.
Rather than rehash all that’s been said, I’ll attempt to link to as many posts and main-stream media articles on the matter as I can find. This list will likely grow over time, so stay tuned in!
Notorious ROB:
The NAR-DOJ Settlement: Journey from Chaos to Confusion
I Think Jeff Jarvis Is in for a Shock (in response to, Take that, 6 percenters!)
Phoenix Real Estate Guy:
The NAR and DOJ Come to Terms. Yawn.
All Phoenix Real Estate
:NAR, DOJ Reach Settlement
The Real Estate Bloggers:
DOJ and NAR Reach Settlement in Suit After Technology Has Moved Forward
AgentGenius:
NAR & DOJ Finally Make Friends
1000 Watt Blog:
Estately, DOJ, and other weirdness
Redfin:
No One’s Going to Take Away Our Data, But What Can We Do With It?
Real Central VA:
What the DOJ-NAR settlement means for me
FlexMLS:
Analysis of NAR/DOJ Settlement of VOW Litigation
New York Times:
Realtors Agree to Stop Blocking Web Listings
Wall Street Journal:
Realtors Agree to Open Listings To Online Discounters
Washington Post:
Online Realtors Win Rights to Housing Database
Associated Press:
Settlement reached for online real estate agents
Las Vegas Real Estate:
Realtors and DOJ finally Realize it’s Irrelevant
When Russell Shaw Speaks…
. . . everyone should listen.
NAR Promoting “Walkable Cities”?!
First I read an honest report from [gasp!] the NAR’s Chief Economist. “Refreshing”, I say to myself, “The NAR may be getting a clue!”
Then I see in my reader something titled, “Top Ten: Information on Realtor® Sites”
I’m a fan of lists. They are short, often thought provoking and more often provide ideas and info that may be good to share with clients, and prospective clients. I’m thinking that maybe the NAR is here to provide me with a cool list I can put on my site.
The first list is, “Top Ten Home Town Destinations”. Helpful if you live in Asheville, N.C. , Traverse City, Mich. or any of the other eight cities mentioned.
The next list is, “Top Ten: Walkable Cities”.
ALERT ALERT! DANGER! was the immediate response I had to that list.
Why?
The “D word”. Yep, discrimination. Fair Housing. What ever term you care to use.
You see, the simple fact is there are a lot of folks out there that can’t walk. While we as a society may have taken political correctness to an extreme, the bottom line is agents must constantly keep these kinds of things in the forefront of their brains.
We are generally forbidden to use terms in listings and advertising like “Within walking distance to schools”. Heck, some even frown on using “walk-in closet”.
Why then would the NAR publish a list of “walkable cities” and even reprint an AP article on “walkability” in Realtor Magazine online?
I betcha dollars to donuts that some agent out there sees this list and writes up a nifty little post on a web site or blog — “Denver Ranked Fourth Most Walkable City!”.
Personally, I wouldn’t go down that rocky road. Your mileage may vary.
That the NAR is providing ammunition for a Realtor to potentially shoot their self in the foot is a little disconcerting. At a minimum, how about a little disclaimer/reminder that writing about something like walkability may be offensive to a significant portion of the population?
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URLs Squished by the NAR
The XBroker is seeking input on domain names taken down by the trademark police.
The Realtor Trademark Police are at it Again…
From the “Oh for the love of God” files…
The Northern Virginia Association of Realtors, in its infinite wisdom, has shut down a Facebook group for inappropriate use of the trademarked term “Realtor”.
Yeah, why should the NAR and our Realtor Associations support realtors in their marketing efforts?
Well, what can you expect from the NVAR? After all, they granted NAR’s Chief Economist Larry Yun a “prestigious honorary membership” in the NVAR for “telling it like it is to consumers, reporters, and most importantly, prospective home owners”.
Meanwhile, http://rottenlyingsleazyrealtors.com/ is still online.
So I guess it’s OK to combine “realtor” with “Rotten, Lying, and Sleazy” but don’t you DARE use it to positively market yourself!
Other domains using the word “realtor” in less than kind fashion:
FuckRealtors.com (parked)
IHateRealtors.com (points to — a Keller Williams Realtor’s site!)
40,430 registered domains containing the word “realtor”. (Hey, it’s down from the 53,434 I noted in this Oct 2007 post…)
Nota bene: The word “realtor” is used 11 times in this post. Not a damn one of them uses it “properly”.
Hat tip to Lani for “Realtor Officially a Curse Word”
Free the MLS! Another Board Forbids the Use of the Term “MLS”
The Realtors Association of Northwestern Wisconsin has joined some other associations in forbidding its members to use terms related to “MLS”. Paying members can’t use terms like “MLS”, “Search the MLS” etc. in domains names, or on their web sites. (see their rules and regs, Section 16)
Granted, if I have an IDX search on my web site, a visitor is not searching the MLS. But to the average non-Realtor person out there, the term “MLS” means “home search”. Try putting “Search via IDX” on your site and see how many people stop by.
A “disclaimer” that the user isn’t actually searching the MLS I can live with. But where do the NAR and Realtor associations get off telling me what words and terms I can or can’t put on my website? I can’t use “realtor” in a domain name. Fine, your trademark, your rules. But MLS? Give me a break.
There are few areas of interest here to me:
1) The term “MLS” is not trademarked by the NAR or any association. Want to know who owns the trademark on the term “MLS”? Try Major League Soccer, M. Licht & Son, Midcontinent Livestock Supplements and Multi-Lingual Software, Inc.to name a few. But it’s not trademarked by the NAR or any association I could find in a trademark search (go here and click “submit query”. You want to look at registered and “live” marks).
2) If you do NOT belong to the association, you are free to use the MLS related terms all you’d like.
How does restricting the use of “MLS” help the NAR and association members? You know, the ones that pay to belong.
Sigh.
Thanks to Inman Blog, I found this nifty little site — Free The MLS.
Why are they here? To quote them:
Our primary order of business is to provide insight and education on a recent addition to Article 12 of the National Association of REALTORS® code of ethics.
Our goal is to have this addition modified to clarify and strengthen our position as REALTORS® in the rapidly changing world of online real estate.
It is our opinion that this recent change to Article 12 of the REALTOR® code of ethics does a disservice to member brokers, agents and consumers as a whole by denying access to a term that has long been understood as a primary marketing tool for customers to buy and sell properties throughout the United States and Canada.
We seek to protect this most valuable asset by having the new code of ethics revision allow REALTORS® to continue to use the term MLS in all marketing materials. We firmly believe that the use of the term MLS does in fact provide consumers with a “true picture” of the MLS.
The consequences of disallowing the use of the term MLS are such that it permit other non-member entities and businesses to usurp the term thereby diluting the ”true” meaning of the term MLS.
In an effort to help to protect consumers, the NAR has set on a path of unintended consequences which will be more detrimental to the consumer than the intent of the initial change.
I’ve got to agree with these guys. The term MLS is basically in the “public domain”. Taking away the Realtor’s ability to use those terms on a web page is clearly not in the best interest of Realtors, in my opinion.
So stop by FreeTheMLS.com and sign the petition. If you are so inclined.
I’d love to hear an explanation of why it’s good to prevent Realtors from using the terms related to “MLS” on their site. Seriously. Help me understand.
OTHERS OPINE:
Cry-Baby Board of Realtor Associations and MLS’s Continue Desperate Rule-Making
Think You Can’t Use “Realtor” in a Domain Name? 53,434 People are Doing It
The NAR trademark “REALTOR®” can only be used in a domain name under very specific circumstances.
From the “Membership Marks Manual” (here is the Table of Contents, here is the specific section on “Use on the Internet“):
Here is a brief list of the principal rules affecting use of the REALTOR® marks in domain names:
1. The term REALTOR®, whether used as part of a domain name or in some other fashion must refer to a member or a member’s firm.
2. The term REALTOR® may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.
I know of a few people that have received “cease and desist” letters from the NAR regarding their use of the term “realtor” in a domain name (RealtorGenius.com being the most recent I am privvy to).
From my perspective, it appears that the NAR randomly applies this rule.
“Why pray tell do you say that oh fateful editor?”
Well, let me count the 53,434 reasons….
Using a search tool available at DomainTools, you can find 53,434 active domain names with the word “realtor” in them.
Here’s a screen snip:
Granted, many of those 53,434 registered domains are in compliance with the NAR’s rules. However, many are not. I don’t have the time nor energy to review the entire list, but a quick scan shows many many domain names out there in clear violation of the NAR terms and conditions for using “realtor” in a domain name.
I mentioned a few special ones in this post - The NAR Fires a Shot at RealtorGenius.com
Why does the NAR allow domain names that clearly violate their rules to be openly sold?
You can go to just about any site that sells domain names and find examples of “illegal” use of the word “realtor”.
I was going to list some, but the list is apparently endless. Just Google “domains for sale” and take a look.
Thousands of illegal domain names? Hundreds of illegal domains hawked for sale on the open market? This all begs the question — how, when and where does the NAR chose to selectively enforce this rule?
Heck if I know. Does anyone?
The First Email
Spurred I’m sure from today’s post on the Inman News Blog, the first email to NARWisdom has been received:
Aren’t you afraid you are going to get slapped for using “NAR” in a domain name?
Well, we know they randomly slap some folks for using “realtor” in a domain name (and I stress randomly. More on that later…).
I’m not a lawyer, but if the National Association of Realtors (NAR) has a problem with this domain name, they best also have issue with the National Association of Rocketry, Nucleic Acids Research, NAR-anon, the hip-hop group NaR, and/or the Merrill Lynch S&P midcap 400 index fund that trades on the Amex under the symbol NAR…
In short, I neither care nor am worried.