Notorious R.O.B. on NAR, Marketing, and the “M” Word
Great piece by Rob. Rob’s a marketer (VP of Marketing for OnBoard), a helluva writer and not one to withhold opinion. That is a great combination.
NAR needs to get with the program. Recognize what’s important in todays so-called “Web 2.0″ world, and focus on those. Might I recommend that NAR begin with (a) understanding the Realtor brand, where it is, and how to improve it; (b) understanding the consumer’s mindset in a far stronger, clearer way, to provide guidance to its members; and (c) working on removing barriers to open and honest conversation between agents and consumers — for example, some of the overreaching provisions of the Fair Housing Act.
Amen Rob.
h/t to Dustin. But only because “4″ comes before “N” in my reader…
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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
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 and Blogging - via Active Rain. And More…
There is an interesting discussion thread happening on the NAR and Blogging. The public post is here.
This post was written by what appears to be a Realtor state representative on the NAR’s Professional Standards Committee. So far, 57 81 ActiveRainer’s have commented on her post.
From the post:
… I personally was very worried that NAR and or Big Broker would indeed look at blogging and the liability it generated.
I sit on NAR’s Professional Standards Committee and I know that this issue is slated to come back up in November. I can’t help but wonder in what form.
This week I’ve seen 2 posts referencing concern about big brother (NAR) looking at Blogs. One was Bryant Tutus Ride the Blogging Wave (ed note: this is a “Member’s Only” post) and the other Brain Brady’s Blogger be afraid of Big Bad Broker or (Bank). Both of these posts were featured as they should have been.
This is a pretty important issue for Bloggers and next month I think we’ll see some sort of policy come forth from NAR.
This writer seems to have her head screwed on straight. She posted this to her own blog about an NAR PS Committee meeting in June — where the discussion on real estate blogs was tabled until November.
Then we tabled the Internet-related issues…blogs to name a few until November. The sub committee will be be looking at Article 12 to see if we need a broader more encompassing ethical direction guiding all forms of communication. They will also be looking at
1. A clearer definition of communications
2. REALTOR making anonymous comments on other REALTORS Blogs
3. REALTORS responsibility for monitoring/editing their own Blogs
4. REALTORS responsibility for Blogs run by licensees affiliated with them
5. Disclosure of time lag (hours or days) in posting comments to Blogs. Must the fact that a Blog is not run in “live time” be disclosed?
6. Posting unfavorable/unflattering (but truthful) comments to Blogs
I can’t wait till November to see what the sub committee comes back with. It should be very interesting and being a blogger I have very mixed feelings about some of this.
Let’s hope NAR doesn’t hand down a bunch of Draconian rules they expect real estate bloggers to follow.
“Must the fact that a Blog is not run in “live time” be disclosed?” Huh?? Sure, some chose to moderate comments. But many more do not. Such a statement shows a basic lack of understanding about blogging in general — which helps confirms the authors statement:
One thing I learned while in DC is that there are many-many people who have no clue what blogging is and surprisingly people in important positions who do not see any merit in blogging and will not encourage their sales associates to blog!
Wow. And these are the people in a position to “rule” about how you run your business…
Frightening.
But even more frightening is the statement, “Posting unfavorable/unflattering (but truthful) comments to Blogs” (my emphasis)
That the NAR is even thinking about censoring/outlawing/moderating/regulating TRUTHFUL comments should scare the bejeepers out of everyone….