My buddy Jonathan Miller does not hesitate to call out the weasels who represent those who work in his industry:
NAR Proves That Trade Groups Aren’t Infallible
With an appalling culture of secrecy maintained by wildly overpaid executives (I believe their CEO is paid close to $3 million per year), NAR seems to be imploding right now.These three prominent real estate firms are backing away from the management cesspool that has severely damaged the National Association of Realtors (NAR) brand. Lousy behavior tends to expand when an organization perceives itself as irreplaceable. Plus, there are two class action suits and a culture of sexual harassment—my goodness.
By my crude estimates, a substantial number of U.S. real estate agents and brokers will drop out of NAR membership.
- Redfin
- Anywhere RE (former Realogy) who owns many of the major brands – Coldwell Banker, Century 21, Corcoran, ERA, BHG and others.
- RE/MAX
A few weeks ago, I talked about how the real estate tech sector (Redfin, Zillow) was the public spokesperson of the real estate industry while NAR stood silent. Yes, NAR does its continuous research releases, but they are largely silent on ‘breaking news’ type issues. This behavior has been a failure of leadership, and with the collapse of confidence in NAR measures by the departure of these major brands (and probably more soon), I doubt they can ever be in their current form.
Note this is after he helped to bring the shenanigans of the team of overpaid incompetents at The Appraisal Institute (TAF) to light. Miller regularly points out the corruption in the trade group (See the bat-shit crazy letter, the chickenshit letter and is the subject of an active investigation by HUD).
Ironically, Miller is known as the most trusted and quotable guy in residential real estate — and is also one of the nicest. His weekly housing notes are on my must-read list (you can sign up here)
As you can see from the list of previously published posts involving the NAR, I am not a fan. I am only wondering why it took nearly 20 years for this useless organization to get called to task for its incompetency and relentless shilling.
My advice? If you are a real estate trade group, you should probably make sure you don’t run afoul of Miller’s sense of wright and wrong…
Previously:
It’s a great time to buy or sell a home! (November 3, 2006)
Tracking NAR Spin (April 23rd, 2008)
Realtors Get Real (March 2007)
Pending Home Sales Index, NAR Housing Market “Bottoms” (January 2008)
How Counter-Productive is Realtor Association Spin? (March 2008)
NAR Housing Affordability Index is Worthless (August 2008)
Former NAR Economist David Lereah is a Jackass (January 6th, 2009)
Its ALWAYS a Good Time to Buy a House! (March 14th, 2010)
Brilliant Amazon Reviews: David Lereah’s RE Books (April 26, 2011)
