To all the agents in the house,
At the National Association of Realtors' legislative meeting last week, NAR leadership, including vice president of policy advocacy Bryan Greene, expressed frustration bills NAR has lobbied for are not moving forward in Congress. These include measures to use federal grant money and tax credits to build more, and even convert underutilized retail and office space into housing.
Now, I'm no Norman Ornstein, but probably most of this inaction is due to general Congressional gridlock, particularly after massive infrastructure legislation fizzled. But could, say, 10% be attributed to the fact that when NAR lobbies Capitol Hill, legislative staffers pull out their Realtor Association binders and see antitrust actions filed by consumers and rival businesses against the group?
Nope, NAR says. "Legislators are concerned about what consumers are focused on," Ron Phipps, former president of NAR, told me Friday. And consumers, Phipps said, are focused on insufficient single-family housing supply and "equity and fair housing."
In other words, consumers are apparently focused on the identical issues NAR focused on last week in National Harbor, Maryland. In NAR's world, consumer interests align with the interest of the real estate agent, which also align with the interests of real estate brokerages, not to mention real estate listings websites and multiple listings services.
I don't think this point of view is necessarily wrong. All these parties, likely including more consumers than not, want more homebuilding. And NAR's goals of having more non-white real estate agents and closing the U.S. homeownership gap between white and non-white households seem like endeavors all sides can get behind.
But at some point, tensions emerge - such as when a brokerage doesn't want to play by MLS rules, or when a consumer objects to being bound by a commission structure that ties the listing agent's pay to the buyer's agent.
Agents, what do you think? How aligned are your interests with NAR's? And how concerned, or not, are you about this litigation, including a certified class action lawsuit in Missouri?
Please send me your thoughts anonymously. I am at mblake@hwmedia.com.
Sincerely,
Matthew Blake
Senior Real Estate Reporter
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