A lot of blog posts have been written about what the National Association of Realtors is doing wrong or what they "ought to be doing" with regard to this or that. I have written some of those posts myself. I think it is important if one is going to find and point out things that are wrong that they also see and point out things that are right.
I believe that all members of the NAR have a debt of gratitude to the NAR. Not just for the MLS either! This includes all the various people who do nothing but find fault with whatever the NAR is doing – they do too. I don’t know if what we have was by design or if there was a really really bright man or woman on some committee back in the day who realized the future impact of what they were doing or it was just a series of lucky breaks. Either way, they did good.
Anyone who understands marketing (and there are NO exceptions to this rule) understands that you can be thought of by a public (whichever particular public you are marketing to – as there isn’t "a public" or "the public") just one way. The result or "product" of marketing is owning shelf space in the mind of that person. And you get to occupy precisely ONE slot. They will think of you one way. How they think of you may have nothing to do with how you would like them to think of you or it may be exactly how you want them to think of you – that all depends on the effectiveness of your marketing – which depended totally on who you were marketing to and how carefully you crafted the single way that public should think of you.
If not for the word "REALTOR" – which became our NAME, thanks to the individuals on some NAR committee a long time back, we would most likely be referred to by the home buying pubic as "Used House Salesman". I like the title, Realtor a lot better. I’m thinking you do too. I’ve mentioned this to a few Realtor friends in person and thought it was about time I mentioned it to my friends here.
Thank you, NAR!! Nice job.