realtor: What can the NAR do for you? This is your chance to tell them and know they'll hear it. - 01/25/09 06:25 AM
Next week I will be speaking to the NAR Strategic Planning Committee in Washington DC.  The committee consists of all of the NAR top brass and other influential leaders.  I am putting together my presentation this weekend and I want to reach out to our membership to see what types of things you would like addressed with our leadership.
Please think big. My sole focus in going to Washington DC is to speak on behalf of our members and I am not afraid to be bold.
To learn more about the NAR's current Strategic Plan click here: http://www.realtor.org/research/research/strategicplanning
… (113 comments)

realtor: NAR: It's time to make a move on Move - 08/01/08 12:12 AM
History of REALTOR.com (Excerpted from Realtor.org website)"In November 1996, the Board of Directors of the National Association of REALTORS® approved an agreement between the REALTORS® Information Network (RIN)—NAR’s wholly-owned subsidiary--and RealSelect, Inc. to take over the operations of NAR’s official Internet site, REALTOR.com. At the time, many business models were considered to finance the development of REALTOR.com. NAR’s Leadership Team decided against using dues dollars or asking for a special assessment of the membership to fund REALTOR.com. While Homestore and its investors have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build and operate REALTOR.com, no NAR funds or NAR member dues … (101 comments)

realtor: NAR Mission: To be the gatekeepers of listings, and protectors of commissions.* - 02/28/08 05:15 AM
Recently I stumbled upon a group of user reviews for Redfin.com. What was most interesting about the reviews was not the opinions expressed of Redfin, but of traditional real estate agents.
Here are a few of the choice comments:
"For me a real estate agent is like one of those disposable plastic rain coats. Just something you buy because it is raining and you need it right then and there, convenient but overpriced and you throw it away after you are done."
"In good conscience, I can't support an industry where the lousiest agent routinely makes more money annually than the best high … (31 comments)

realtor: "This is the best market in years..." NAR 2008 TV ad. - 02/28/08 03:55 AM
And we wonder why we have a public perception problem?
I came across a 2008 National Association of Realtors TV ad today and felt a little dirty after watching it. To say it did more damage than good is an understatement.
Consumers are not stupid. In fact they are quite smart. They can understand a complicated message. As an industry we are only going to be successful if we are able to position ourselves as the expert resources that we are, and we can only do that once all of our messaging is consistent and truthful.
First, here is the ad:
 

Consumers … (123 comments)

realtor: The ORIGINAL Realtor® value proposition - 01/10/07 08:52 PM
Disintermediation has become a heated topic among real estate agents in the past few years. For some/many, disintermediation is synonymous with the apocalypse experienced by the travel industry. Seemingly almost overnight, travel agents across the nation and the globe saw their livelihood dwindle to embers in a field that had seemed so certain.
Within our society, fear has swept across the board and become second nature for even college graduates uncertain about the security of job stability. Fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers have been displaced by outsourcing, corporate reorganization, and the pace of the information age. Understandably, agents are scared that technology … (42 comments)