Dennis, If you told me your platform was to get rid of all the would be real estate agents that have nested at all the Boards and MLS' - the people who can't sell real estate on commission but through nepotism and backside kissing have found a steady pay check from my "dues", I would vote for you.

The system is broke! Thanks be to BROKERS greed. As for paying more for my license and membership charges - no thanks. Let the BANKS sell real estate and I will hang my license with them.

Do I sound bitter?

Dennis:

I see what you are going for, but I would rather see the barrier to entry be based on education. A 4 year degree plus maybe 8 or so 30 hour courses.

If we're going to raise the bar, let's raise the competency.  Stupid people can always find some money!

Gregory you nailed it !!!

The Banks!! sooner rather later it will become a reality, it just missed last time around.

I am with you John, but the “4 year degree” might be a little much.  I struggled through a “University” (zzzz…) for nearly 3 years completely frustrated by what some “committee” said I should know (about history and art, etc.) to be in business.  I am not in favor of a broad "Universal Education" requirement.  I am in favor of much tougher Real Estate education requirements initially. To get a license to cut hair in our state, is 2000 hours, just 90 for a real estate license, you do not even need a high school diploma or GED!  

More importantly, from my experience as a Broker, I would like to see much more stringent, and pertinent Continuing Education requirements.  I would also like to see, in our state, a much more accessible regulatory body, responsive to complaints, to weed out the lose cannons.

Dennis, as I am sure Gregory will agree, I think there is a lot wrong with how the NAR and our local boards work.  However, I do not need more expenses.  There have always been the part-time casual agents and there probably always will be.  If you are saying that they substantially decrease the business you could do, I doubt it has much affect on you individually. The 80/20 rule pretty much applies where ever you go.  20% of the agents do 80% of the business.  If your strategy was 100% effective and the 80% that do few transactions all left, there would only be their 20% of the total business to spread across the remaining agents.  It would pay for the increased fees, but I’m not sure how much more you would realize.

Good post!

Mr MLS President can you help me out here?

"My premise is if you can't afford these type of increases, then maybe it's time you hang up your license, and quit doing those one, two, or three transactions that most agents do."

Were do you get your stats from with the statement above?

Example:

I know of agents that do 3 to 4 deals a year  or whatever they need to supplement there SSI without going over what they are allowed to earn.

In Georgia we pay .0012 of every home sold on FMLS do that math, it just cost me 600 bucks a month back on  just one sale..my total for my last 3 MLS deals were over $1,800. alone..

We do not have a quota on sales in GA or FL to each there own more the merrier, am I missing the point here?

Vote for me I will abolish the NAR fees, local board fees and of course MLS fees and I will create( One Board For ALL) with only one fee !! nationwide, the DOJ already took of the MLS problem , our Point 2 NLS is working fine.

Vancefee

Vancefee is correct. Firstly, since when does a degree from a university give you common sense or a morality that would fit a code of ethics. You will never legislate either with any rules or regulations, you can only eliminate those that don't comply after the damage is done. Since that is an after the fact solution, you lost my vote.

Higher cost should always be associated with something of more value. Since you showed no additional value, I could not be a supporter. If you said we would have one MLS for the entire US, you have my vote.

I think you need to rethink your strategy.  Some agents only want to do 2-3 transactions a year especially if its high-end property i.e. $million+.   And some agents bless them all, can only find 2-3 transactions a year and are working even harder to increase their earning power.  We all don't start out making lots of deals, for some of us it takes time, and should you just tax them with fees in the meantime? I think not!   I'm with Troy we need a better system as a qualifier to be a real estate agent.

With the fees we have to pay now, and no work some will drop out without your help.  If you are doing fine, why punish the rest of us?

I feel all of that is always in constant motion without the much higer all at once programs of much higher fees and much more education.

The lower producers will weed themselves out. The higher producers (like myself :) will outshine those who are not producing during our presentations and referral business. They only make me look better. Without the bad is there a good? With the low is there a high?

It does upset me when I see a seller list with a brand new rookie or brother in law type person list and they do such injustice, like no photos on MLS or bad or wrong information, but that is the sellers obligation to research and interview agents to see who is going to do the best job. And you know the old saying....you get what you pay for.

The education requirements in TX have gone up and the fees have gone up. So part of your campaign wish is true.

Vance - I haven't seen so many parasites since that foreclosure homeowner left a steak (I think it was a steak) in the refrigerator of his abandon home - as I see at the BOARD. Not only are they sucking the life out us with dues and fees, but now they are the "certified" trainors to teach the rest of us how to do it. Now, mandatory training will have a new meaning and always spelled with $$$$$$$ from our pockets to theirs - I think they even have a 401K set up for themselves after they are done at the BOARD.

God Bless America.

Gregory :)

Fees, I am a member of the Orlando Board Of Realtors and yes pay my fees both MLS and Board fees.. around $900 bucks for both.

Now being licence in Georgia.

I need to have a secondary board for what? my Realtor status stops at the Ga /FL border....  hummm more fees, but wait I do not need to join a secondary board to get on the MLS here  wow a savings of around $250 bucks.

My biggest beef is it should be "ONE Board FOR ALL"  period !

A Realtor is a Realtor and should have "No Borders No Boundaries" or olympics hurdles to climb over state by state.

I do expect the board fees will go up because of the largest decline in membership nationwide regardless if you are a newbie or a season vet

mark my words increase on the way.

Now Gregory on to mandatory training

Should start at home in Chicago a lesson in reputation of the use of the word Realtor by keeping it out of the press and lawsuits to try to settle things before damaging the "Realtor" name even further in the public eyes

http://tinyurl.com/6pfmos

Someone has to pay all the legal fees I wonder who?

That steak you saw in the fridge Gregory

Was from the LAST Realtor !

http://halcyon.usc.edu/~kiran/ny/dinos.JPG

Dino Dinosaur

One last thing about mandatory training  Gregory

There are times it just may help someone.

A Home is not an ATM machine

Training Video below

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1g15SJacxY&feature=related

Vancetube

Vance, she got more empathy from Suze than she would have gotten from me. I'm a cold hearted guy. Good-bye Realtor Stacey!

Good-bye Realtor Stacey!

One can only imagine how her clients are doing today  with her marketing plan back then....

Short on education

Dennis, one good thing about New Agents coming into the business, is that they bring new ideas.  If it were the Status Quo, everyone would still be using those big heavy books.  The market may be tough for some people right now, but thats life.  We just have to deal with it and move on.  NAR is as entrenched as the Status Quo agent, it has something to do with history, I assume.  History teaches us to keep moving or else we fall.  Instead of raising fees, we need to educate ourselves to a greater extent, so that we may outlast our competition.

This is a good lesson for all of the Walmart shoppers supporting China.

Big brokers don't care they like all these new agents ..they suck as much money as they can.  More education is needed...not only that the type of education needs to be revamp.  Get your name out there

send out post cards...etc.   while everything has their name on it.

the mls is over priced and gives away the listings to 3rd party vendors.

local news papers etc.  No one should even work for the mls unless they have been a realtor.

Get as many agents as you can to get to cap...don't need to go over cap...just get the money to pay for the office!

How many agent are thrown out there with out practical knowledge and the experienced agents beat them up in negociations etc.

The licence classes don't tell you much either.

The mls teaches ethics but doesn't inforce.

Give me one mls..and listing book and p2 and I'm good to go!

I want an mls to put listings in a data base and give agent access

add listing book u need nothing else execpt take the mls public website

off the internet so we can work and not waste our time!