Is NAR / REALTOR.com violating state laws?

I notice the other day (and had it confirmed by a realtor.com salesperson) that NAR and REALTOR.com are happily selling advertising to any agent in any state. For instance, an agent in Nevada can buy the ads for downtown Chicago without having a license in the State of Illinois.

The reasoning the salesperson told me is that these agents would be farming for clients that they can refer to an agent in the Windy City and get referral fees. So, that begs the questions, is this legal? Just skating by maybe?

The bottom line is that there is enough to do for the state licensing examiners and they probably won’t get caught. But what it does is leave the agents in those market out of the direct loop to the consumer and having 25% of their commission stolen and hiding from the consumer that they are dealing with an out of state, unlicensed person that they never wanted to work with in the future.

And you wonder why Congress may put a cap limit on real estate agent commissions.

fredglick
Realty Reality! That describes Fred, a sharp witted and outspoken realist for the mortgage and real estate world who has appeared on CNBC and NPR's Marketplace along with being quoted in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. Fred is the CEO of U S Spaces, Inc/Arrivva (a real estate brokerage firm in PA, NJ, DE and CA) and U S Loans Mortgage Inc (mortgage brokerage in PA, CA, FL and VA), and serves on the Board of Directors and is the Federal Legislative Director for the UpFront Mortgage Brokers. Fred is also the co-creator of real estate startup Rentscoper.com, a mathematically driven rental search engine. See everything Fred at fredglick.com.

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