Want to know what Realtors can do to help resurrect the American economy? They can get the hell out of the way, that’s what.
Here’s my entry in the Al Lorenz/Don Reedy NAR tax-credit video contest.
Think you can do better? Please do. And tell everyone you know in the media to latch onto this with every tooth they have left in their dainty little lapdog jaws.
This used to be a free country. Whether or not it ever is again depends on what each one of us does now…
teresa boardman says:
I belong to NAR and I have not gotten any of that money. How do I get it?
September 7, 2009 — 4:28 am
Doug Quance says:
I must be doing something wrong, too, T.
September 7, 2009 — 6:05 am
Greg Swann says:
> I must be doing something wrong, too
As it happens, one of the little chirpettes at ActiveRain has written a guide to practical vampirism.
We all know that the NAR’s lobbying efforts are concocted to benefit brokers and Realtors at the expense of all other consumers. It doesn’t do to pretend otherwise. To the contrary, the only way even to begin to combat evil is to call it by its true name.
September 7, 2009 — 7:06 am
Doug Quance says:
I won’t pretend the NAR isn’t in it to benefit brokers and Realtors over the consumer – no question there.
I was merely pointing out that it has not benefited ME in the least. Not one dollar. Ergo, I must be doing something wrong.
September 7, 2009 — 7:39 am
Al Lorenz says:
It will be hard to top that for being direct!
September 7, 2009 — 11:01 am
Jessica Horton says:
I told them to go to hell over a year ago (bailout e-mail) and haven’t looked back.
Great video.
September 7, 2009 — 4:25 pm
Don Reedy says:
Let’s do some math.
1.l million NAR members (that’s real estate agents if you’re not part of the establishment).
Let’s use the tried and true 80/20 rule, i.e. 80% will follow the bouncing ball, only 20% will scream “watch out!” (See video above).
80% of 1.1 million is 880,000. If every one of these real estate agents promotes a single $8000 tax credit transaction, the total amount of money issued to them from you will be $7,040,000,000. That’s 7 BILLION dollars….another 7 BILLION dollars.
Think “Cash for Clunkers” was expensive? Imagine if NAR manages to lobby Congress for $15,000 credit instead of the $8000.
Al, you’re right. Greg is direct, and as always, hard to top because he simply is no nonsense. But my video will be forthcoming, and every one of you should fall on one side of this issue or the other. Support the “blood sucking” as Greg says, or support the lobbying as NAR suggests. But take a stand.
I usually don’t do this, but I have to ask you go watch the NAR video one more time. Lobbying has always been like making sausage, and we manage to shrug it away as part of the system. But NAR has thrown away the playbook on this one. It’s an “in your face” let’s use our numbers, our clout, or lobbying expertise, and now, let’s use our members, to grind Congress and the American public to take more than we (NAR) could ever possibly give back.
September 7, 2009 — 4:42 pm
Genuine Chris Johnson says:
I don’t think you’re talking fast enough. But, I’ll see your shrill and raise you.
Results tomorrow, if I have time, and certainly by wednesday.
The Premise: Do You Want Sarah Palin In Charge of Your Uterus.
September 7, 2009 — 7:49 pm
Jeffrey Douglass says:
Dear Greg,
Perhaps you should consider not renewing your NAR and local memberships as a REALTOR®
The first time buyer credit has been a possible leg up for many first time home buyers . Yes NAR represents member benefits, it is a trade organization – but I have been involved at state and national level and they do many good things for the consumer.
September 8, 2009 — 8:56 am
Greg Swann says:
> Perhaps you should consider not renewing your NAR and local memberships as a REALTOR®
Here are four better ideas:
1. The NAR could disband itself and go forth and sin no more.
2. The NAR could stop stealing from taxpayers, could stop being a champion of expropriation, could instead become a steadfast champion of property rights in all forms. (Incidentally, if this were to happen, I would be proud to be a member.)
3. The NAR can get the hell out of my way by not forcing me to belong to it and to my state and local associations in order to gain access to the MLS.
4. The NAR can hide and watch as smart Realtors like me steadily undermine it until it collapses in the rubble of its own contradictions.
My money’s on #4.
In the mean time, people like me — people who can see the consequences of the Rotarian Socialism the NAR was among the first to inflict upon the American consumer — are the best hope Realtors have of becoming a force for undivided good in the economy. Don’t hold your breath waiting for the institution to change, but a lot of Realtors listen to us. One by one, they will become full-throated advocates of the private property rights. My plan is to do as much damage as I can — in my spare time — to every exponent of Rotarian Socialism. But the way to do that is not to retire from the contest but, rather, to change the game.
September 8, 2009 — 10:14 am
Chris says:
How strongly do you believe in the principal that this is ripping off the American people? Enough to turn away a customer who wants to use the credit? That’s the only way this will end: when enough people put their money (potential earnings) in second postion to doing what’s right to practice principals they firmly believe.
September 8, 2009 — 9:51 am
Greg Swann says:
> That’s the only way this will end: when enough people put their money (potential earnings) in second postion to doing what’s right to practice principals they firmly believe.
Would that were true. We do not take any sort of in-cash “benefits” from the state, but this is a foolish scruple, just so much rain-dancing. Our not taking government money disrupts the kleptocracy not in the slightest. Moreover, there is no way to escape the in-kind “benefits” thrust upon us by the government.
The only way to rid the United States of tyranny is a philosophical revolution nearly universal — and nearly unanimous — in extent. We had this in 1776 and we pissed it away. We may never get that lucky again.
September 8, 2009 — 10:16 am
Chris says:
“Our not taking government money disrupts the kleptocracy not in the slightest. Moreover, there is no way to escape the in-kind “benefits” thrust upon us by the government.”
If JUST ONE Realtor said they would not work with a tax-creidt client based on the principal of theft of the taxpayer it would make national headlines. One brick does not make a building… many bricks can build a fortress. It has to start somewhere and saying it can’t be done and that one persons act doesn’t matter is just what “they” want to hear.
It’s really very easy and yet extremely difficult at the same time — saying ‘no’.
September 8, 2009 — 10:29 am
Greg Swann says:
Chris, I expect you’re a nice guy, but none of your solutions will work. There is nothing the government likes better than an unredeemed stamp. You can forebear to take promised “benefits” all day long and you will not only not damage the leviathan, you are arguably helping it grow. That much comes down to Socrates: My not having made myself dirty will not make the state clean, but, at the least, I will not have made myself dirty. That’s a reason not to take tax dollars even even though this does zero damage to the tyrant. There are strategies for undermining the state that will work, but, as I discussed yesterday, most of them entail much greater direct losses than direct gains to the individual person who effects them. In that respect, in the absence of a near-universal consensus that the state is no longer legitimate, the ideas you propose amount to meaningless, ineffectual acts of self-sacrifice. Your actions might result in your voluntary impoverishment — or involuntary imprisonment — but nothing else will have changed. Again: The only way to rid the United States of tyranny is a philosophical revolution nearly universal — and nearly unanimous — in extent.
September 8, 2009 — 11:33 am
Chris says:
Greg,
This is the problem. All of us talk about the need to change the system and fight the man but virtually no one will step up to the plate. Change does not happen all at once and for certain it will take thousands of perceived meaningless acts of self sacrifice to get others to the point to achieve universal wholesale change. Until it happens the future of our children will be mortgaged to pay for todays Starbucks allotment. I don’t want my kids future in debt any more than it needs to be.
This post was about the tax credit. Let one Realtor step up to the plate and sacrifice their future income based on principals and see what happens. Telling the NAR to stop promoting the tax credit while willingly taking it is like telling a kid not to smoke pot as you smoke a joint infront of them. This free money is a drug and both the user and the dealer get high while damaging the system.
I understand your points and acknowledge them but it need not get to the point where we are surely headed. We are all weak and guilty of letting it happen until we stand up for something beyond short-term monetary gain. Turn the tables.
September 8, 2009 — 12:36 pm
Jay Myers says:
WOW! and ummm Wow! I have to say I agree in part with what Greg is saying, I get on a soapbox every time I go to the association to pay my dues and my MLS fee’s. But it is not the fees I really complain about, I feel that is the cost of doing business to some degree, albeit the fees and dues are too high.
What really gets me is when I am chastised or looked down on, or attention brought onto me when I refuse to contribute or “donate” to the Texas Real Estate Action Committee (TREPAC) This is when I get on my soapbox, I have never been offered a survey, or a vote, or to provide any input on what the lobbyist are going to go to D.C. to “help me” in my business.
Of course there is probably some article somewhere in the NAR code of ethics that says I am not suppose to be posting this in opposition as well.
I am completely for as Greg says “instead become a steadfast champion of property rights in all forms.” I would pay NAR dues for that, but MLS fees need to be put in check, and the lobbyist need to go away.
September 11, 2009 — 12:13 am
Bill Ruppert says:
Greg,
I do not see how you can possibly be a member of the NAR, given how horrible you think it is. You are not forced to be a member – no one is holding a gun to your head. If you want the benefits, you join. Your choice. The government is not forcing you to be a member.
The MLS is a contract between free individuals, which as a libertarian (as far as I can tell) you should honor and respect. You want the benefits, you follow their rules, which are not forced on you by the government, only by private contract.
There are plenty of folks who make a good living in real estate without being in the NAR, nor participating in the MLS. You could start your own organization of real estate agents, and make your own listing service if you wish, based on your own principles. You obviously have the technical skills, and I’m sure you could get many like-minded agents to join with you.
Need I point out that there are many other trade associations that do exactly what the NAR does for their members, such as the US Chamber of Commerce, National Association of Manufacturers, big labor, big finance, big pharma, big food, big retail, etc, etc, etc. Picking on the NAR almost seems petty compared with all of the bloodsucking going on.
September 15, 2009 — 3:45 pm
Greg Swann says:
> I do not see how you can possibly be a member of the NAR, given how horrible you think it is.
The implication would be that only the larcenous and people indifferent to larceny should belong to the NAR. I think the organization you’re thinking of it the Mafia, although your mistake is perfectly understandable.
> You are not forced to be a member
I am required to belong to the Phoenix Association of Realtors, the Arizona Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors in order to gain access to the Arizona Regional Multiple Listings Service. If I had a choice, I would only belong to the latter. I expect the NAR as presently constituted will come to regret not giving me the choice.
> The MLS is a contract between free individuals, which as a libertarian (as far as I can tell) you should honor and respect.
I do. I disagree with the only rule in the MLS that actually matters — the co-brokerage fee — but I am in complete compliance with MLS rules. Also with PAR, AAR and NAR rules. My word is my life.
> You want the benefits, you follow their rules, which are not forced on you by the government, only by private contract.
You are conflating two unlike things — the NAR with the MLS — but the implication is that to disagree in any way with the policies of either organization is a disqualification for membership. This is an absurd proposition. If the real estate industry were to follow my prescriptions, it would be transformed into an honorable business overnight.
> Need I point out that there are many other trade associations that do exactly what the NAR does for their members
The Fallacy Tu Quoque buttressing the Fallacy Two Wrongs Make a Right. As we have discovered again and again, this is a well-worn path to rationalizations for evil. If you want to defend the NAR, defend it. Tell us all how good it is to steal money from innocents in order to induce real estate transactions so that you can make a buck. If you’ll do that, you’ll be one up on Chuck MacMillan or whomever is the current Don of this Mafia.
> Picking on the NAR almost seems petty compared with all of the bloodsucking going on.
This bloodsucking — see, we agree the NAR is evil! — is being done in my name. I want it to stop.
September 16, 2009 — 6:55 am