Although I’m not a fan of your idea of charging the way you talk about (just different ways of doing business, nothing more), I certainly can see where that could become an additional offering from flat-fee brokerages. The RPR could easily become a National MLS, I think everyone sees that possibility (and have been buzzing about it on both sides since). Would it be the downfall of local associations? I don’t know.

Let’s suppose there were a National MLS created tomorrow. What needs to happen (from a local association point of view) is a change in relevance. We see the local boards and associations as nothing more than an MLS in many cases. Without the MLS in their hands (because of a National MLS), they would need to change their relevance to us as agents. Much like the music industry was forced to look deep within themselves during the Napster-into-iTunes years, the local associations would need to rethink their strategies and become relevant once again. The music industry took a long time to figure that out and a lot can be learned from them if one is to pay attention.

For me, as a flat fee broker, It could open doors. I plan on monetizing this new platform and offering valuation reports for a fee. We’ll see how it all plays out.

RPR could also easily be transformed into the new “national” mls. Just add the offer of compensation to the mix, feed the listings to Realtor.com, ListHub.com and let Google do it’s thing and we are done.

It looks very promising, why do we need local associations anyway? let’s all join the national system and cut out the middleman. CE courses can be taken online, so we don’t need associations for that.

For me… I’m excited about the changes! Bring it on!!!

I just have this feeling that sometimes we play the “us vs. them” card so hard, that we miss the big picture. Of course, NAR holds its cards close to its chest as well…so we’re never quite sure what exactly it is they’re thinking (long term) until they let us know. I do believe that they couldn’t have ignored all the murmurs over the years about Move.com and the general “they’re in it for themselves” vibe I get from a lot of agents when talking about NAR. If they haven’t heard it, they need to, but I think they’ve been listening and much like was discussed back during the Google/scraper situation, they are a behemoth of a machine and not always quick to change course. I suspect much of this has been tossed around for several years and is only now starting to see the light of day as they begin cranking the gears and moving their machine into place.

Joe – Can you believe I’ve never seen that movie? I’ve seen just about every war movie on earth, but somehow missed that one. I do believe that NAR is listening, much like I said to Missy in my comments above. They listen here, they listen at conferences, they’re out and about and they’re (in my opinion) trying to become more connected to us in order to hear us more clearly. I’m happy to see them taking on a project of this size. Will it work (and what defines “it worked”)? What will the final outcome be? Those all remain to be seen. The steps are there, the idealism is there, the mechanics are there – now it’s up to execution.

Based on what I saw in the webinar, I think the biggest block is going to be the sheer size of the RPR. It is probably going to seem overwhelming to many (ever met an agent who still can’t work an MLS user-interface?). Some people will see no need for it, as they don’t see a need for stats and more info about a property other than the color of the curtains. Some agents operate in that simplicity mode and it works for them. I do think they’ll be dooming themselves as younger generations, bred on a constant flow of data, demand more and comes of (home-buying) age.

The Berlin Wall has a lot of significance in my life. Being there before it came down, traveling freely after its fall, and working my way through the Eastern Bloc all the way into the heart of Russia (Yekaterinburg), I learned a lot about the world. I grew up with Reagan and the Cold War and the Soviets were my “enemy,” and years later I learned how we were really all the same. Political ideologies are what keep us apart, but when I spoke to people (and not just from former Communist countries) I learned that we all want similar things, no matter how we attempt to get them. It really helped me form my views on the world as a whole and I’ll be an old man telling his grandkids stories one day, boring them to tears, telling them about the days when the world was so different. Perhaps I’ll be able to include old NAR war stories in that as well.

I flashed back to the scene in Saving Private Ryan when General George C. Marshall tells his adjutant to get Ryan “the hell hell out of there.” The thrust from his advisors was that it was too hard, the sticks (parachute regiments) had fallen off target, no way to find him, he’s probably already dead – in essence – WE CAN’T DO IT.

My reason for stating that is that it appears the leadership in NAR is in tune with what needs to happen to the organization. I’m sick of the “us vs. Nar” mentality – it’s negative, unproductive, and frankly – not a true representation of what the folks at NAR want, or what we want. This initiative – pass or fail – is a great sign that OUR leadership at NAR has the ambition – regardless of the odds – to prove to its membership that it exists solely to further the membership’s goals and is willing to take radical action to ensure success.

This post and the background links (including the webinar and original Jim Duncan post) should be required reading for any agent diligent enough to keep an eye on the horizon as they toil in the here and now.

Navy Chief, Navy Pride

p.s. loved the Berlin Wall analogy – I actually have a piece of it.