The sacred Latin motto of the National Association of Realtors, composed for them by the late great Mike Royko, is “Ubi est mea?” – “Where’s mine?”
That’s a joke, but it’s only funny because it’s true. The actual original objective and the ongoing mission of the NAR is to cling to the commissions by making competition with its members illegal, unprofitable or onerous – ideally all three.
That’s it, the secret sauce unbottled: The state real estate licenses the NAR created and bought, legislature by legislature, forbid non-licensees from listing, leasing or selling real property for compensation.
It’s only the last two words that matter. This is still an allegedly free country, so no one has yet tried to stop you from doing my job for free. For Sale By Owner sellers do it, as do some investors. The chains the NAR hired the states to forge were imposed only upon people marketing real estate professionally – who typically bear those chains lightly, seeing them as golden handcuffs, if they see them at all.
But it should come as no surprise at all that the newly revised forms being promulgated by the Arizona Association of Realtors are about nothing but compensation. The NAR got sued for putting the brokers’ interests ahead of their clients’, and its response is to disclose, ratify and formalize that self-seeking behavior.
So how will listers compensate buyer’s agents – while pretending they’re not? And how can we more elaborately disclose the inevitable twinned-betrayals resulting from dual representation? And whatever shall we do about hypothetical unrepresented buyers?
My answers to those questions are easy: Bloodhound Realty always pays the whole pizza – don’t bind the mouths. I represent sellers only, never buyers, because there can be no doubt about my loyalty. And sellers should counter unrepresented buyers by making the earnest deposit huge and non-refundable; if the buyers make it to the finish line that’s great, but the seller’s risk is indemnified if not.
But consider this choice bit, from the proposed listing contact:
I read that to say that, by listing your Sun City home for sale with me, you will be waiving your right to join any class action lawsuits, now or ever. As with the “release, indemnify and hold harmless” tap-dancing in our contracts, this mumbo-jumbo will mean doodly-squat as soon as it hits a courtroom. But it is bald-faced goniphery even to propose this, given what the NAR has put the country through.
I am a member of the NAR under protest: To gain access to the MLS, the blue Supra lockboxes and the AAR forms library – held by state courts to be the de facto standard of care – I am required to belong to the national, state and local branches of the NAR. As soon as those three products are unbundled from compulsory membership, as they will be, I will no longer be a part of this evil anti-competitive, anti-consumer criminal cartel.
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