We all have the right to be free from our pimp in Chicago.
It’s the speech code that’s put me off the reservation. Until lately the NAR has been a nuisance to me, but now it is an active menace. I would abhor thought police even if they were not targeted at my kind of thinking.
But: Not as easy as I had hoped. I had thought our MLS could dance without its pimp in Chicago, but it cannot, at least for now.
Accordingly, I have asked for ARMLS, the Phoenix Association of Realtors and the Arizona Association of Realtors to create a new product category for me and other agents who understand economics and/or don’t want the NAR threatening their careers.
Here is the bulk of my missive, and feel free to borrow text at will, if you want to make a similar appeal of your own associations:
I will need for ARMLS, the PAR and the AAR to build a parallel product for me. I like ARMLS and the AAR forms library and wish to keep them, but I do not want to pay any of my money or to lend any of my moral support to any political or ideological organization.
This is the logic behind the right-to-work laws, and it seems reasonable to me that you should already have done this. I expect many agents will join me in this product category, once it is available.
You are perfectly free to attend the church of your choice, but there is nothing of justice in forbidding any American his own beliefs and forcing yours upon him.
I’m asking all of you, collectively, to stop doing that.
This is a completely satisfactory solution for me. I want to work with your de facto monopoly businesses, but I don’t wish to be compelled to go to your church.
Can I be free of you amicably?
Thanks for your thoughtful consideration,
Greg Swann
Designated Broker
BloodhoundRealty.com
No rational man believes in luck as a cause, and yet fortune favors the well-prepared mind. Comes today news of the massive Department of Justice antitrust lawsuit against the NAR:
The National Association of Realtors has adopted a “series of rules, policies, and practices governing, among other things, the publication and marketing of real estate, real estate broker commissions, as well as real estate broker access to lockboxes, that have been widely adopted by NAR’s members resulting in a lessening of competition among real estate brokers to the detriment of American home buyers,” the DOJ said in a news release on Thursday.
The federal government alleged that the Chicago-based trade organization violated the Sherman Act and “restrained” free trade by:
• “prohibiting NAR-affiliated multiple-listing services (“MLSs”) from disclosing to prospective buyers the amount of commission that the buyer broker will earn if the buyer purchases a home listed on the MLS;
• allowing buyer brokers to misrepresent to buyers that a buyer broker’s services are free;
• enabling buyer brokers to filter MLS listings based on the level of buyer broker commissions offered and to exclude homes with lower commissions from consideration by potential home buyers;
• and limiting access to the lockboxes that provide licensed brokers with physical access to a home that is for sale to only brokers who are members of a NAR-affiliated MLS.”Because the practices have been widely adopted by NAR-affiliated MLS networks, they are “therefore, agreements among competing real estate brokers each of which reduce price competition among brokers and lead to lower quality service for American home buyers and sellers,” the complaint alleged.
All of those charges are true. I’m guessing there are many more claims in the full complaint, all also true. As above, everyone who understands economics knows what’s wrong with the NAR.
But it seems propitious that I should make my ask today. Until yesterday, they had to turn me down, risking the obvious lawsuit. Today, I think Napoleon should inquire of himself just how many flanks he wants to defend at once.
Meanwhile: Feel free to borrow my text. We all have the right to be free from our pimp in Chicago.
