Hat tip to the three people who sent this in – from the ocregister:
The Orange County Association of Realtors has filed a grievance against an Irvine real estate broker who writes a blog that takes critical looks at the housing crash, homebuyers and real estate agents.
Larry Roberts, who writes the IrvineHousingBlog.com, freely admits going “over the top” in his posts, which are particularly harsh on homeowners who default on loans. He frequently shows MLS photos of properties that have gone into foreclosure. He also has accused real estate agents, in general, of being dishonest.
The grievance says Roberts and two other people have violated a code of ethics rule stating that “Realtors must not knowingly lie about competitors” as well as a general set of regulations governing how MLS information is used on the Internet.
Roberts says OCAR is trying to impinge on his freedom of speech, and that the organization has no standing to keep him from posting on his blog.
He has a broker’s license, he says, but he doesn’t run a brokerage or sell real estate, and he is not a Realtor or a member of OCAR.
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Stop right there.
The OCAR has no jurisdiction over Larry – he isn’t part of their club.
Here is Larry’s response: Link
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The associations of realtors are a joke. From NAR on down to the local clubs, they provide no real help to agents, other than offering a convenient location to buy forms and open house signs.
The MLS is a separate enterprise owned by the associations, but nobody insists on excellence – it’s just a standard internet format that is slightly upgraded from the 1995 version.
Every year they ask the agents for suggestions, to which I always respond – but nothing changes.
The Houston Association of Realtors is the leader. They publicize their realtors, and allow them to post their blogs and other websites on their listings. The HAR has done this for years, yet it hasn’t caught on here. The San Diego MLS still forbids you from including youtube tours for public consumption.
If an association really wanted to do some good, they’d enforce the existing rules, and/or create clear-cut guidelines on things like short-sales. But their idea of enforcement is busting my chops for including this in the MLS remarks, at the request of the seller:
Property has been assigned to an auction house. Pre-auction offers are being accepted online and Auction House said they will respond within 48-72 hours. Note Pre-Auction Worksheet Attachment.
They sent me a warning while I was on that Washington D.C. trip, and I thought I’d handle it when I got back. But that was too late, they fined me $150 the following Monday.
There is a great opportunity for any association of realtors to take the lead with defining short-sale procedures, because the uncertainty is making participants brazen in their approach.
For those of you who didn’t see the exchange yesterday, a couple of posts back we got into it again over what is right and wrong. Check the 38 comments here.
Once somebody creates a public MLS, there won’t be any reason for the association of realtors to exist. I look forward to that day.
It would clear out approximately 50-80% of the agents, and save the rest of us about $300 per year.
This guy is correct in his assumptions about local board of realtors – they are a complete joke. Here in Vegas, all they are concerned about is fining us (similar to the police issuing tickets) due to verbiege in the mls . Our local realtor population has decresed from about 18k to around 11k and they need some way to make up the revenues.
So far in past 2 years I have been fined over 2k here in vegas due to ridiculous gustapo type old school rules.
They are trying to put IR on super-secret double detention!
Of course, it has to be secret because they have no jurisdiction, and he should sue their behinds for besmirching his reputation.
That said, it appears to have been a publicity nightmare for them. The hundreds of comments on the article in the OCRepublican run 100:1 against the relitters association.
Totally agree with you.
Jim, when that day comes there might be dancing in the streets.
Maybe IHB can sue OCAR for defamation of character and harassment. Anyway, looking like good publicity for IHB.
The truth will set you free, but first it will make you miserable.
Better watch out what you post Jim–Those boy’s will come down on you! LOL
The OCAR has a stigma that is rotting in the mouths of many underwater OC homeowners. Though they’re not completely responsible, they are without a doubt complicit in this massive ponzi scheme. I would never expect realtors to tell people to stop buying, but I would have been smarter by stating the obvious … “we believe it is unwise for future homeowners to buy using today’s popular, exotic, lending instruments”.
Anon,
More than half of its members were passing out Gary Watts’ forecasts at the peak (15 to 18% up each year!!!!!)
They are thugs. Petulant, dishonest, unethical thugs.
How come Gary Watts didnt’ get called before a tribunal?
You know why… they think truth can be bent the way they want it to be. It’s an echo chamber of idiots.
Chuck
I have been following the short sale information and still don’t fully grasp/understand it. I had offered full advertized price(243,000) on a short sale in my area last August. Bank approved it and then backed out a few weeks later. It finally went back to Bank and was sold as REO at 225,000. Although I was disappointed about that first escrow not working out; I purchased another (REO) place which was newer, larger, and had a lower AOAO fee for 230,000 and am now very happy with the results of my “adventure” in 2010.
“More than half of its members were passing out Gary Watts’ forecasts at the peak (15 to 18% up each year!!!!!)”
Self-delusion and unrealistic expectations are correlated with debt, big surprise.
The fiat usury fractional banking system is collapsing.
Prepare accordingly…
http://media.chrismartenson.com/images/credit-market-doublings.jpg
Realtor Associations are just like Unions to me…more concerned about the dues, than the member’s careers.
I like the posters and caricatures on IHB. IR is uninhibited in ridiculing the underwater homeowners and deadbeats who live rentfree.
The snarky exchanges among posters are too much at times but I never expected a grievance has been filed against IR.
I tend to agree with clearfund on this one. The heads of associations are just trying to find ways to justify the tax they take from their members. Some trade unions actually provide value through training and pension management but there are more than a few unions/professional associations where the union/association leaders are little more than parasites. On the surface this would appear to be one of those cases.
I wonder how hard it would be to offer a competing MLS and get Real Estate Agents to use it. The big problem is monetizing it. You’re not going to be able to charge the general public to see it because they are use to getting the info for free, so you need to get a fee out of the Real Estate Agents and they are already paying for the MLS. Of course most of the successful web businesses lately (Facebook, Twitter, Groupon) all operated at a significant loss to get popular and then looked at monetizing it once it got popular.
We (ca renter and me) have talked about doing our own MLS, and yes monetizing it is the difficult part.
The public feels like they have access already, and most realtors are numb enough that they don’t care.
How would doing your own MLS work? How would it be different from Zillow for instance?
You know, realtors in general dodged a silver bullet death knell when the Ummels sued their realtor in ’08, because they believe they overpaid in Aviara (Carlsbad). It was a due diligence issue against the realtor. Had they won — and they should’ve — it would’ve started a sh*tstorm of litigation against realtors and brokers, the likes of which we’ve never seen before. Why do I think the Ummels lost? Imho, it was because they looked and acted wealthy…it was difficult to “feel their pain”. fwiw…
“We (ca renter and me) have talked about doing our own MLS, and yes monetizing it is the difficult part.”
Huh. I’d think that getting and maintaining the data in the system would be harder, but, maybe I’m not thinking on the right scale.
There are two ways to go:
1. The MLS Club, where you regulate the member agents, and all sleazebags get kicked out.
2. Public-MLS, which would be a Redfin/Zillow/Craigslist combo with RE-specific parameters, videos, plus showing instructions. Anyone can participate – it’s wide open!
Neither require the participation of the association of realtors, it would be a mutiny and we’d leave them behind.
@#18 – In this ideal MLS can we also indicate properties that have NODs and foreclosure dates 🙂