Housing News
2009 Annual National Association of Realtors Conference
#NARDiego
This week, hundreds of Realtors and Realtor Association Executives will descend upon San Diego to take part in the 2009 National Association of Realtors Conference. 2009 has been a tough year for the market as the economy has tanked, but the nautical theme of the conference, “chart a winning course” aims to help attendees to rise above tough times.
What is interesting however is that despite recent game changing announcements from NAR on the unveiling of HouseLogic.com and Realtor Property Resource, this conference is happening in times much more docile than Mid-Year 2009 when the world was in an uproar. We wanted to bring to light the topics that were on fire in May of this year in preparation for the Annual conference:
Google deemed a scraper:
Did Google Scrape My Website? by Paula Henry: “MIBOR classifies Google as a scraper site and therefore, I am allowing Google to scrape or reproduce the MLS data from my site. This interpretation is supported by the National Association of REALTORS®, based on the MIBOR’s listing service rules and regulations. The entangled web of rules we abide by to be a participating member of our local board and MLS are subject to the interpretation of the local authorities and agents who police the web for offenders. They say scraping and indexing is the exact same thing.”
Related reading:
NAR Code of Ethics Amended to Cover Social Media:
NAR Code of Ethics Rules for Social Media Realtors & Associations by Benn Rosales: “the new wisdom coming from NAR Midyear are new amendments to beef up the existing code of thou shall not talk smack about your fellow agents in blog posts or comments that cannot be backed up by empirical evidence- that’s a good thing, right? Yes, but be careful. First of all, you shouldn’t be writing things that aren’t true on your blog in the first place, stories should be attributed to fact, or you should have possession of absolute fact.”
Related reading:
Realtor.org website issues:
11 Questions for the NAR by Lani Rosales: “I challenged several Realtors (even NAR committee members) this week to see if they could answer any or all of these questions by logging into Realtor.org and it was fruitless. There was a relatively unanimous “I dunno” to all these questions which is why a list of links in comments is only a short term solution to this problem of information dissemination.” Update: NAR responded and has started redesigning the site & its structure.
Related reading:
NAR Financial Info
Breaking Down NAR Dues- the NAR’s Value Proposition by Lani Rosales: “It’s intriguing how all monies are allocated and it’s equally interesting what is free. I am personally grateful for all of the volunteer work done for the members and support NAR’s not directly charging for things like Sentrilock. It’s notable that NAR revenue also comes from other sources like advertising dollars from conference vendors and sponsors, advertisers of Realtor Magazine, Realtor Magazine Online, Realtor Magazine E-Newsletters, Realtor AE Magazine and sponsors of the Realtor Magazine Good Neighbor Awards, Realtor Magazine Young Professionals Network, and Realtor Benefits Program.”
Related reading:
NAR Mid-Year Issues, 6 Months Later:
As you pack your light sweaters for San Diego weather, ask yourself if these issues have been resolved- you’ll be around people that have the answers or who are the most involved, so why not get to know the issues better for when you’re face to face?
Regarding the topics above, NAR has appointed notable bloggers to committee positions, has that changed anything? How is NAR’s social media program going six months later? Has the IDX ruling changed anyone’s business practices? How is the NAR website coming along and how about the Realtor Magazine publication reduction?
We look forward to this year’s coverage. If you have any story tips or juicy news, we accept all tips (simply click the contact button at the bottom of this page) and we will have our ears close to the ground to see what goes on at this year’s conference.
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Average age of houses on the rise, so is it now better or worse to buy new?
With aging housing in America, are first-time buyers better off buying new or existing homes? The average age of a home is rising, as is the price of new housing, so a shift could be upon us.
The average home age is higher than ever
(REALUOSO.COM) – In a survey from the Department of Housing and Urban Development American Housing Survey (AHS), the median age of homes in the United States was 35 years old. In Texas, homes are a bit younger with the median age between 19 – 29 years. The northeast has the oldest homes, with the median age between 50 – 61 years. In 1985, the median age of a home was only 23 years.
With more houses around 40 years old, the National Association of Realtors asserts that homeowners will have to undertake remodeling and renovation projects before selling unless the home is sold as-is, in which case the buyer will be responsible to update their new residence. Even homeowners who aren’t selling will need to consider remodeling for structural and aesthetic reasons.
Prices of new homes on the rise
Newer homes cost more than they used to. The price differential between new homes and older homes has increased from 10 percent traditionally to around 37 percent in 2014. This is due to rising construction costs, scarcity of lots, and a low inventory of new homes that doesn’t meet the demand.
Click here to continue reading this story…
Housing News
Are Realtors the real loser in the fight between Zillow Group and Move, Inc.?
The last year has been one of dramatic and rapid change in the real estate tech sector, but Realtors are vulnerable, and we’re worried.
Why Realtors are vulnerable to these rapid changes
(REALUOSO.COM) – Corporate warfare demands headlines in every industry, but in the real estate tech sector, a storm has been brewing for years, which in the last year has come to a head. Zillow Group and Move, Inc. (which is owned by News Corp. and operates ListHub, Realtor.com, TopProducer, and other brands) have been competing for a decade now, and the race has appeared to be an aggressive yet polite boxing match. Last year, the gloves came off, and now, they’ve drawn swords and appear to want blood.
Note: We’ll let you decide which company plays which role in the image above.
So how then, does any of this make Realtors the victims of this sword fight? Let’s get everyone up to speed, and then we’ll discuss.
1. Zillow poaches top talent, Move/NAR sues
It all started last year when the gloves came off – Move’s Chief Strategy Officer (who was also Realtor.com’s President), Errol Samuelson jumped ship and joined Zillow on the same day he phoned in his resignation without notice. He left under questionable circumstances, which has led to a lengthy legal battle (wherein Move and NAR have sued Zillow and Samuelson over allegations of breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets), with the most recent motion being for contempt, which a judge granted to Move/NAR after the mysterious “Samuelson Memo” surfaced.
Salt was added to the wound when Move awarded Samuelson’s job to Move veteran, Curt Beardsley, who days after Samuelson left, also defected to Zillow. This too led to a lawsuit, with allegations including breach of contract, violation of corporations code, illegal dumping of stocks, and Move has sought restitution. These charges are extremely serious, but demanded slightly less attention than the ongoing lawsuit against Samuelson.
2. Two major media brands emerge
Last fall, the News Corp. acquisition of Move, Inc. was given the green light by the feds, and this month, Zillow finalized their acquisition of Trulia.
…Click here to continue reading this story…
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Bob Wilson
November 10, 2009 at 5:21 pm
I dont assume that the scaping/indexing issue is any less a hot issue this week. NAR has even more reason to prevent the indexing of IDX listings now that RPR will have HouseLogic.
Robert Luna
November 10, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Bob, I agree, RPR will be the hot topic no doubt (keeps coming up in my conversations) but it will no doubt influence the pending scraping discussion as well
Todd Carpenter
November 11, 2009 at 2:48 pm
Bob, HouseLogic does not publish any listing information. Nor does it use RPR data. RPR data is a resource for REALTORS and not meant to be published on the public web. So the new IDX “Google” rule changes actually have little to do with either product.
Bob Wilson
November 11, 2009 at 4:01 pm
Todd, are you saying that NAR/RPR does not intend to provide any public facing listing data?
Todd Carpenter
November 11, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Bob, yes. The data available to REALTORS® on RPR’s web site will sit behind a firewall. They’ll have access to this data, but won’t be able to display the listing information on their websites. It was covered in the webinar. Your MLS will continue to provide listing information that can re-purposed through IDX solutions.
Bob Wilson
November 11, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Whats the point then? I have that info now. What is the ROI on $12 mil for NAR?
Fred Glick
November 11, 2009 at 5:41 pm
I have to agree with Bob. Why do it if we can get the info now?
What’s the point?
Portland Condo Auctions
November 11, 2009 at 5:55 pm
Garron Selliken is going to be there. Drop by and enjoy the show. -Tyler
Todd Carpenter
November 11, 2009 at 5:59 pm
Bob, more to come. The webinar was a sneak peak. More questions will be addressed here in San Diego this week.
Fred Glick
November 11, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Todd, will there be a video posted somewhere of the announcement details?
Benn Rosales
November 11, 2009 at 8:23 pm
https://www.realtor.org/about_nar/stinton_webinar_110609 just about all you ever wanted to know on the subject is here, steve jobs really rocks this one!
Jim Gatos
November 12, 2009 at 6:07 am
Please send Russell Shaw down to San Diego with his famous “Realtor” pencil sharpener (https://www.bloodhoundrealty.com/BloodhoundBlog/?p=2033) and ALL our troubles will GO AWAY!
Bettye Sutton
January 26, 2010 at 2:09 pm
This was my first NAR Conference, and what a Conference it was. I truly enjoyed every moment. Please keep up the good work. Thank you I’m so glad I got to be a part of the great event!
Bettye Sutton