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Category: Supplanting the NAR (page 1 of 10)

July 17, 2021

Buyer Agency Project: Buyer agents offer no value today.

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

“I just showed three houses this week, out in L******, and all of them had 2% co-brokerage fees.  Learn to sell, listing agents”

I read this post (paraphrased), from a former car salesman with a Florida real estate license, in a Facebook group the other day.  The irony of it was too delicious to pass up so I responded with something like this:

“It is laughable to watch an agent, who can’t sell a buyer on the value of his services, complain about the fact that his compensation is set by another real estate agent.  Sell your value to your buyer, charge a fee for the services you will provide, disclose how that buyer brokerage fee will be paid, and negotiate a contract which pays you that fee in a manner which benefits your client”.

I may have taken a snarky swipe at the original poster but I don’t remember because he deleted the thread.  Good.  I am sure the guy was just airing his frustrations but that sort of weak sauce is the last thing I would want on the internet if I were him.

Let’s talk about the REALITY of real estate brokerage in 2021:

1- While price appreciation may have slowed, the real estate market still has a supply/demand imbalance.  This means that homeowners can negotiate lower commissions to sell their homes.
2- Listing agents, with the right property, have little to no need for buyer agents today.  If it is priced at fair market value, entered properly in the MLS, and aggregated across all of the realty bots, buyers will line up to tour the home.  Thus, paying a co-brokerage fee of more than $1 seems like a giant waste of money.
3- The US Department of Justice doesn’t like this at all and the National Association of Realtors has lost any power to perpetuate the existing compensation model.  Expect buyer brokerage compensation to change.

Every time this subject comes up, buyer agents wail and grind their teeth.  The most common comments I read are “It’s so hard to work with buyers nowadays, I DESERVE to get paid more; I practically work for minimum wage”.  Read more

November 20, 2020

Overnight News: DOJ sues NAR. Nothing that matters changes. Redfin rejoices.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Ya think it's easy?

“Treats for trouble is how you get more trouble.”

I saw Housing Wire’s story on the Department of Justice’s anti-trust suit against the National Association of Realtors, and I thought: “Yeehaw!”

But then I read Glenn Kelman’s odd rejoicing, and I realized that the “lawsuit” is a done deal, and nothing that matters will have changed.

Vide: From now on we will tinker at the margins about how Buyer’s Agent’s commissions are disclosed – but we will not have changed the idiotic way Buyer’s Agents are compensated. Kelman thinks that will make things less confusing.

What’s worse, the “settlement” does nothing about the NAR’s actual, ongoing anti-competitive practices. Cartels are bad, ab initio, and requiring membership in a political advocacy group to gain access to a monopoly market is abhorrent to two fundamental American ideals – freedom of conscience and the freedom to trade.

What’s better? No matter who “wins” this election, Federal courts are all much friendlier to anti-trust cases. And a Biden NFPB will make a beeline for the 1099 safe-harbor exclusion: Wage slaves are union members are Democrats. I’m hoping for a kinder, gentler NAR for 2021.

So strong my hope, me here yesterday:

Greg Swann: Making the case for my manumission – and yours? – from the #NAR.

And elsewhere:

Housing Wire: DOJ sues NAR for alleged antitrust violations.

Glenn Kelman: The Truth Comes Out.

The Department of Justice: Settlement Will Increase Competition to the Benefit of American Homeowners and Homebuyers and Allow for Innovation in Brokerage Markets. Ahem. Read the fine print: I think the actual consequential change will be that MLS’s won’t be able to lock non-members out of their proprietary lock boxes. Everything else is disclosure and its enforcement, with no change in how Buyer’s Agents are compensated – no change in the inverted incentives warping them to better serve the Seller’s interests, rather than the Buyer’s. Dumping the whole monopoly is the right thing to do, but next on the list would be aligning the interests of Buyer’s Agents with their Buyers.

CNBC: October existing home sales see ‘spectacular’ 26.6% annual gain even with short supply and surging prices.

Housing Wire: The housing market Read more

November 19, 2020

Making the case for my manumission – and yours? – from the #NAR.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We all have the right to be free from our pimp in Chicago.

As mentioned, I am striving to extricate myself from the National Association of Realtors.

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 Read more

April 3, 2013

What’s big, dumb, sclerotic and panics on command? A California Association of Realtors member, apparently.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

So this big dumb robot shows up on the front porch this morning:

Believe it or not, it’s from the California Association of Realtors. The robot exists to support this video:

Get it? There’s a meet-cute featuring pre-tween pretend robots, and this clunky piece of junk communicates… what…?

My reaction? “Urf. Now I’m going to have to waste time mocking this nonsense…”

Okayfine. You will note that the robot seems to be suggesting that California Real Estate is something of a slot machine.

But at least your CAR member agent has his squarish mechanical head screwed on right.

And in a batteries-not-included world, your mechano-Realtor comes complete with two enormous D-cells, which must have added considerably to the postage.

The box didn’t provide a lot of insight into why one should choose a CAR-certified RealtorBot, but it was fun imagery:

Ultimately, though, it’s the test of the marketplace that matters. And a CAR-approved RealtorBot can panic mindlessly like no other.

Hey, CAR members: No tar, no feathers in California? This is your money I’m having such a good time with…

April 12, 2012

Todd Carpenter joins the Knights Who Say SMIE!

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Todd Carpenter, the National Association of Realtors’ official In-House Social Media Judas Goat, has announced that he is leaving that charnel house of corruption for the slightly-less-corrupt Trulia.com. Carpenter, who almost immediately proved himself to be much too goaty for the refined nostrils of Michigan Avenue, managed to last three years with the NAR.

His new position at Trulia is entitled — I kid you not — Senior Manager of Industry Engagement (SMIE). In an earlier, more circumspect age, a job title like this would have implied carefully-honed skills in affable-cocktail-drinking, check-grabbing and barely-losing-at-golf. In the Realty.bot era of the dot.com epoch, Todd’s function will be to be well-known to thoughtless TwitBook time-wasters in the real estate business, thus to provide “social proof” that advertising on Trulia is an unbeatable waste of money.

Carpenter’s announcement is the fourth in a recent series of similar “news” stories. Todd will be following Bob Bemis, Jay Thompson and Duane Fouts into exciting, challenging leadership roles in the burgeoning Realty.bot Judas Goat industry. In light of Carpenter’s utterly implausible new job title, I have denominated all of these sellouts great guys “The Knights Who Say SMIE!” They may not actually say “SMIE!,” mind you, but you can bet they’ll say what they’re told to say. To do less would be cheating the shareholders, when the job description clearly calls for gulling the yokels.

As always, if you don’t know who is the yokel — it’s you. If you don’t believe me, check for blood in your underpants.

I have warned you about all this for many years. You didn’t listen then, and you won’t listen now. But if all the mad monkeys of the TwitBook mob “decide” to tee me up for a Two Minutes’ Hate, could y’all please go the extra mile and hate my new book and web site, too? Chapters 10 and 11 explore the mob mentality thoroughly, so there’s plenty to rant about.

But: Still: My heart goes out to Todd Carpenter, easily the most easy–going of The Knights Who Say SMIE! I always thought he was redeemable, and I still do. And look at the Read more

December 5, 2011

Hey, California Realtors: Are you making minimum wage for your efforts? If not, your broker just went into cardiac arrest.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Teri Lussier pointed this out to me last week, and I’ve been waiting since then for someone to plumb the implications. Ah, well, when there’s constabulary work to be done…

Here’s the news: The state of California is making ZipRealty pay it agents minimum wage for their time.

That’s huge. It’s just the thin edge of the wedge, for now, but the implication is that the real estate broker’s “safe harbor” exclusion from employment laws is about to be flushed into the Pacific Ocean.

The “safe harbor” argument is that real estate salespeople are independent contractors, and that brokers are not obliged to pay them any wages, nor to provide any benefits.

This is why brokers pile on as many hopeless, helpless, hapless idiots as they can: Virtually everyone has at least one transaction in him, and the cost to the broker for the eventual failure of 85%+ of the new “hires” is nothing.

I don’t want to seem to praise employment laws, since their sole effect is to destroy jobs. But no other business would — or even could — be as wasteful of human capital as virtually every real estate brokerage is.

Could that be changing in California? Take note of this:

“Employers who previously were not concerned with minimum wage issues are now put on notice to ensure they are providing those basic protections to workers.”

And this:

After learning of the Bakersfield cases, California State Labor Commissioner Julie Su in September filed a $17 million lawsuit in Alameda County Superior Court on behalf of hundreds of other ZipRealty employees statewide. That lawsuit is pending.

Brokerages like Zip (and Redfin, etc.) have a greater exposure, because they operate too much like real businesses. But I can’t imagine what the 25,000 or so starving California Realtors might be thinking just now.

But I think I have a fair idea what their brokers are thinking…

The National Association of Realtors is propped up on three flimsy stilts: The real estate licensing laws, the “co-broke” — the cooperating brokerage fee behind the MLS system — and the IRS-sanctioned independent contractor “safe-harbor.”

Unheralded by anyone who knows why it matters, the “safe-harbor” took the first Read more

November 14, 2011

Blessed Are The Implementers, For They Will Inherit the Moniker “Unchained”

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I caught up on some much needed sleep yesterday, after the fifth BloodhoundBlog Unchained Conference, held in Anaheim, CA.  It is my hope that my partner Greg Swann celebrates his birthday, in relaxation and Splendor, before pondering the future of these conferences.  As the Godfather of the Unchained movement, Greg argued that the title of these conferences be “Unchained” rather than the “Unleashed” title I offered.  What Greg knew, and I understand now, is that Unchained suggests that the Bloodhound was never enslaved while unleashed suggests prior submission.

If you missed our show in Anaheim, you missed the proof in the pudding.  I’ll give you an overview:

Greg Swann led us off with a demonstration of his Chinese army; software which creates tens of thousands of unique webpages, with granular listing data.  Greg showed us how he can close the publishing gap, in less than an hour each week.  Greg continually invents new and exciting software, to stay one step ahead of the market competitors, who would try tho chain him.

Scott Schang came to Unchained 2008 on, how he has described it, “his final few bucks”.  He took the ideas offered there, implemented them here, and created a business which employs a half-dozen people.  He shared his online business plan, his accomplishments and mistakes, and how he overcame market changes to stay relevant in the consumers’ eyes.  From borrowed bus fare to accomplished entrepreneur, in 40 months, Scott has a database of willing home buyers, numbering in the five figures—Scott is Unchained.

Brian Summerfield, of the National Association of Realtors, came to take some body blows from the crew.  It was his motivation which impressed me; he transparently announced that he came to address us because he wants content for Realtor.org .  Mr. Summerfield invites constructive criticism of NAR on its forum.  Contact him if you have an opinion to offer.

Bill Lyons, a serial entrepreneur, shared his latest creation for consumers, Revestor.com .  Revestor.com offers investors an IDX search with rental data.  Home buyers can search listings by net cash flow or capitalization rate.  Revestor.com is expected to be released right before Thanksgiving.

Mark Madsen Read more

November 9, 2011

Hey, Ron Phipps: I say the National Association of Realtors is a rent-seeking Rotarian Socialist conspiracy against the American consumer. Can you offer even one argument to refute that claim?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

My friend and partner, the ever-more-Unchained Brian Brady, posted a Facebook link to a Wall Street Journal article on the current push by the National Association of Realtors for extended loan subsidies for the rich:

To understand why 90% of U.S. mortgages are still underwritten by taxpayers, look no further than the nearby letter from Ron Phipps of the Realtors lobby. He makes clear that the Realtors, like the rest of the housing-subsidy crowd, are working hard to get Congress to reinstate a $729,750 loan-limit for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac guarantees.

Why do rich people need taxpayer-underwritten home loans? They don’t, of course. The NAR needs loan subsidies at all income-levels to keep churning the real estate market.

In case you haven’t looked at your bank statements or retirement accounts lately, the NAR has already churned the American economy into a five-year coma. But like every other legislative vampire, the NAR won’t stop sucking away at unearned income until the body politic is entirely exsanguinated — bled to death.

This latest Five-Alarm Urgent Action Item — one of three or four a week Phipps and his minions spam-spew — is nothing more than an extension of the original NAR philosophy: Milk consumers, taxpayers and real estate salespeople for the benefit of brokers.

Do you doubt me?

The real estate licensing laws, written in their original form by the NAR, exist to limit competition in real estate brokerage, eliminating alternative sources of real estate brokerage to artificially sustain higher commissions for NAR brokers.

The sales commission co-brokerage fee — the vaunted “cooperation” among brokers — exists to create the Multiple Listings Service oligopoly, the golden handcuffs by which real estate salespeople are bound to their brokers and to the NAR — and which, not-coincidentally, continues the viciously anti-consumer NAR policy of de facto sub-agency.

The IRS “safe harbor” exclusion shielding real estate brokers from having to report income for their employees makes it possible for brokers to churn-and-burn gullible real estate salespeople like a toy store burns through your kid’s allowance money. No other business can afford to treat human capital — that would be you — like so Read more

November 7, 2011

What’s your marketing plan for 2012? Set a Bloodhound’s pace this Friday at BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

We’re having a Scenius this Friday in Anaheim, a BloodhoundBlog Unchained event that we’re running, subversively, during the NAR Convention. We’ve done this before, but the NAR was a lot more powerful the last time. By now it just seems pathetic — but we don’t much care either way.

We care a lot about the Scenius, though. What we do is put a lot of bright, ambitious people together and then revel in the great ideas that emerge from the synergy. Our guests are some of the inventors of the wired world of real estate, and they will have lots of new ides to explore.

Just think: Since the last time we did BloodhoundBlog Unchained, Google has come to be beset by Bing, Twitter by Facebook and the web by app-centric mobile computing. Seems like a good time to rethink your marketing strategies, doesn’t it.

If you’re going to be in Disneyville for the NAR Convention, or if you’re within driving distance, join us.

Here are the details:

BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim
Friday, November 11, 2011
12 Noon to 10 pm
Cortona Inn & Suites Anaheim Resort
2029 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-971-5000
Mapped.

The dogs will hit town Thursday afternoon, so, if you’re around, look us up. But the main action will be Friday. I know there are seats left, I’m not sure how many. If you want to get your 2012 off to a running start, assert yourself:

Make the Scene: $99


















October 26, 2011

Real estate licensing laws are a criminal conspiracy against the consumer created by and for the benefit of a cartel.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This is me writing in June of 2007. Someone linked to it from Twitter yesterday, and I read it for the first time in years. The argument holds up — there has never been any attempt at rigorous refutation — but it’s even more interesting now that America has discovered what Sarah Palin and others are calling “crony capitalism” — the pandemic affliction I call Rotarian Socialism or simply rent-seeking.

When I wrote this, I was sure that the real estate licensing laws had nothing to fear. Things have changed. For a first thing, when state governments have to choose between marginal departments and continuing to provide a food dole to reliable voters, the state department of real estate could see huge budget cuts. But even better, sooner or later it will dawn on people that the only way to push “businesspeople” like the NAR off the taxpayer’s tit is to repeal all commercial regulation.

That’s a game-changer. If you’re good at actually delivering value to your clients, so much the better for you. The free market rewards virtue. And if you’ve been depending on the NAR and all those huge stacks of rent-seeking legislation for your income — good luck at your next job… –GSS

 
Real estate licensing laws are a criminal conspiracy against the consumer created by and for the benefit of a cartel

When I walk into a supermarket, the first thing I look at are the floors. If they aren’t buffed to a blinding glow, I walk right back out. Why? Because if the manager isn’t staying on top of the floor maintenance, he isn’t staying on top of anything else, either. Without doubt, I am “protected” by vast armies of federal, state and local food cops, but it turns out that they are not willing to get food poisoning in my place. If I fail to guard my own self-interest, the courts might make me (or my heirs) whole — after-the-fact. But nothing can protect me if I won’t protect myself.

Surely you effect many similar sorts of “consumer protection” in your own behalf, possibly believing in your heart that the Read more

October 17, 2011

Why can’t the MLS or the mafia innovate? And what should you do instead of being an NAR goon?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Today, Redfin.com CEO Glenn Kelman warns us that we may be “outsourcing our brains” because MLS systems are so stupid:

I worry about whether the fundamental choice we made five years ago was the right choice, that if we played by the rules and used MLS data that we would be able to build a better Web site or a worse Web site. And, I think, the jury is still out there. But, I promise you, if brokers aren’t building the best Web sites for real estate consumers, we are headed for pain. Pain for the customer, pain for the broker.

For weeks now I’ve been sitting on a post by FBS CEO Michael Wurzer summarizing half-a-dozen non-starter ideas for MLS innovation. I’ve been waiting, so far in vain, for someone to post a comment stating the obvious:

Why can’t the MLS innovate? For the same reasons the mafia and the government can’t innovate: Criminals steal so they won’t have to produce wealth.

When BloodhoundBlog Unchained comes to Anaheim, we’ll be covering lots of nuts and bolts tactics for the hard-working grunts on the ground — as you would expect. But we’ll also be talking about very big ideas, most notably how to run our business like a business and not a crime syndicate.

I know Realtors don’t like to hear the truth about how the National Association of Realtors has behaved over the past 100 years, but just as with the leviathan state, the time we have left for childish stupidity is running out.

I can’t cause the congenital Rotarian Socialists of the NAR to discover, honor and live up to their humanity. But I can show you how to build a lasting business you can be proud of — by behaving like an honest trader and not like a predator.

I am not anti-NAR. I am not anti-MLS. I am not even anti-socialist or anti-graft or anti-sleaze. What I am is pro-values. If you will give me a few minutes of your time, I will show you how working with integrity in the real estate business is as simple as pursuing your own values — exclusively.

If Read more

October 6, 2011

Brian Brady makes it happen: BloodhoundBlog Unchained is on for Anaheim, Friday, November 11, 2011.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Brian Brady got us a room, may the gods whisper his name in awe. We’re working on sponsorship, and I’ll have speaker announcements in the coming days. Here’s the big picture:

BloodhoundBlog Unchained in Anaheim
Friday, November 11, 2011
12 Noon to 10 pm
Cortona Inn & Suites Anaheim Resort
2029 South Harbor Boulevard
Anaheim, CA 92802
714-971-5000

We’re going split the day between formal presentations and Scenius scenes. No one can predict where lightning will strike, but we have delivered transformative experiences before. If you go to the NAR sessions that day, you can look forward to being upsold on crap. Come see us and we could change your life forever.

That’s sounds like a value proposition to me.

I’ll have more to say soon, but right now I want to give people who are paying attention a chance to jump. We have a very limited number of seats, so if being there matters to you, get your credit card out now.

Make the Scene: $99


















September 15, 2011

SEVRAR puts the brakes on ARMLS über alles, at least for now: Arizona-wide MLS hits a roadblock.

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

I wrote about this in July: The Arizona Association of Realtors wants to buy ARMLS, the Phoenix-area MLS system, in order to create a statewide MLS. This looked like the kind of sleazy insider self-dealing we have come to expect from Associations of Realtors, so I had assumed it was a done deal, all over but the staged performance of voting.

Not so. For some reason, the Southeast Valley Association of Realtors (SEVRAR) voted to decline AAR’s offer — which was at least five cents on the dollar what ARMLS is actually worth, given the notion that Zillow.com is worth a billion dollars.

But: I assume nothing. I have no idea why SEVRAR voted against what was obviously the party line. The cynic in me suspects a shake-down, but I really, really want to believe that some of that Mesa Tea Party spirit has found its way into the NAR.

I left a comment on AAR’s weblog, but so far it has not been moderated. Those folks aren’t interested in hearing from me, anyway. Realtors and brokers from all over the country talk to me about real estate marketing, technology and law, but the local practitioners, to all appearances, have nothing to learn from me. Their loss. Here’s my comment, in any case:

If you were at the SEVRAR meeting on September 9th, I’d love to hear why the sweetheart deal of the century was voted down.

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Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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