It seems to me that if a REALTOR wants to "attack NAR" they might also think it was a good idea to take an axe to their own head if they had a headache. We are the NAR. When I hear statements to the effect that all NAR has ever really come up with is the MLS, I wonder why those same people don’t find it odd that jewelry stores only sell jewelry. Or grocery stores seem fixated on food. BMW just with the nice cars.
I think that agents who don’t have a thankful attitude towards the (very) nice people who run NAR and sit on all the endless committees are ungrateful. If it wasn’t for the work of a tremendous number of people you don’t know you wouldn’t even have a real estate career. The MLS that we have and enjoy is one of the most valuable assets our industry has and we have it thanks to the National Association of REALTORS. Countless lawyers, government busy bodies and other destructive types have done everything in their power to attempt to take it away and ruin it. Thanks to the NAR we have it.
If there is really something you think "NAR should fix" and they aren’t doing it quite as fast as you would like the answer is simple: get on a committee. The people that have are not only intelligent, have the wonderful quality of wanting to see others do well and (this one is very important) also play well with others. That last one alone disqualifies most of the self appointed experts on what everyone else ought to be doing.
Even when it comes to REALTOR.com no one here is making a demand. NAR has the goal and purpose:"to help its members become more profitable and successful." Any intelligent analysis confirms that REALTOR.com has not and does not accomplish that. But that doesn’t make NAR "wrong". At the time it was set up the people who voted to set it up in it’s present form thought it would be great. That beautiful building we have in Washington, D.C. was paid for with stock from Homestore. Anybody who was factually guilty of wrongdoing (at Homestore, now MOVE, is long gone). So your hindsight and mine is 20 – 20. So is theirs. The foresight part is where we sometimes make mistakes. It seemed like a good idea at the time. Is there anyone reading this (over the age of 25) who can’t look back and see something they would have done differently?
It is the future that matters not recriminations about the past. NAR is going to totally reclaim REALTOR.com. I know this is going to happen because I am not going to stop writing about it until it they do. Every working REALTOR in the United States will eventually know about this and every person taking a seat on any committee at the state level on up will know about it too. They will do the right thing.
One of the best written articles on this subject is from Jonathan Washburn, one of the founders of Active Rain. I also have created a Reclaim REALTOR.com links page. Please check it out.