The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has hired the advertising agency Uncommon Creative Studio to help recalibrate its image in the wake of a year’s worth of negative publicity.
Ad Age reported that Uncommon – which has offices in New York City, London and Stockholm – is “known for its work with major brands like SiriusXM, Peacock and Guinness.” The terms of the contract were not disclosed, but it follows a marked decline in NAR’s media spending – the trade group spent $38 million on advertising for the first three quarters of this year, down from $90 million in same period during 2023. Last year, NAR spent $101 million on advertising.
In terms of media coverage, NAR has experienced a rough year – the $418 million settlement of the Sitzer/Burnett case, abrupt shifts in executive leadership, a series of negative investigative articles by the New York Times and the threat of a rival organization with the start-up American Real Estate Association have dented NAR’s reputation within its industry and with the wider public.
In the era of DOGE, the NAR needs to be eliminated. Our state real estate commission needs to be reduced to a few members and the local MLS should be available to non-members for a fee, if necessary. We shouldn’t be forced to pay dues to these organizations, especially since they are doing nothing to correct the real day-to-day problems in our industry. We need to get the government and all of the bureaucracy out of our business.
What a farce! Try being good stewards of our money and stop spending it on personal stuff and keep you d**k in your pants
There are a lot of local MLS systems that are available to non realtors but the will not have key service for the electronic lock boxes because that is only available to realtors due to the code of ethics, which I think is non-sense.
I agree!
Exactly.
Wouldn’t that money be better spent on consultants to repair the practices that put them out of favor? The act of hiring an ad agency suggests they are working on selling their poor business model rather than correcting them.
Instead of spending our money on a pr campaign, how about saving our money by firing all the inept attorneys who couldn’t defend us with the DOJ?
Its doubtful an advertising company can repair whatever image is left. We would be better served to hire a lobbyist and put NAR into the expired column.
As with the Democrat party, the big problem with NAR is its policies and actions, not its “messaging”. NAR’s stubborn refusal to recognize and admit its failings will result in it losing and being replaced by a more effective organization. PR campaigns can’t fix outdated business structures and fundamental management failures.
Any body still paying dues to this sham org is a fool. They are no longer relevant other than to keep paying themselves from other peoples money
NAR stands for, “Not Any Relevance,”.
When you have to hire someone to tell how good you are then,
YOU ARE NOT! Spend a lot of other people’s money.
How sad after all these years! Yes, NAR could have taken a different approach in the legal mess. My curiosity is about to get the best of me as it relates to the newly formed “American Association of Realtors.” Time will tell! I do know that we have not send the end of the legal challenges for years to come!
It would be helpful if people in the industry educated themselves ON the industry and understood its structure.
1-Real estate licenses are issued at the state level by a government entity called the “Department of Licensing. You must have a license to practice real estate in that state. The rules for real estate licensees in each state are written in law and vary from state to state.
2-NAR is a trade association not a government entity. It’s divided into local, state and national levels. NAR leadership at the local and state levels is made up of mostly volunteers with a few paid support staff. The national headquarters is run more like a corporation and is funded by dues from its members. NAR members are called REALTORS and agree to abide by the NAR code of ethics. NAR does many things including education and working to protect personal property rights. Do some research.
3-The mls is a database that allows real estate agents to input information on their listings and search for information on other people’s listings. MLS databases vary in size from very small to some that cover most of a state. They are paid for by member fees and not designed to make a profit. Some are owned/run by NAR, some are owned/run by members with minimal paid staff to oversee operation and compliance. The mls also has rules that were developed by members to enable broker cooperation and market research. If you are an agent where the mls is not run/owned by NAR you can join the mls without joining NAR. If you live in an area where NAR owns/operates the mls you must join NAR to have access to the local mls. Some mls databases are built to display relevant information to the public. Some are not. Most or all of them allow their members to make relevant information accessible to the public on their brokerage or individual websites.
4-Online “real estate portals” like Zillow, Realtor.com, ect. Are not “the mls”. They are databases who take information from public records and nationwide mls databases and combine it for public display. They are for profit companies who use the data they collect to attract potential buyer and seller contact information and sell it to real estate agents. These companies would like to replace the agent owned mls system. If that happens they will get to make the rules and decide how much we pay for access to their system.
If you are a real estate professional you NEED to understand how things work and if you don’t like it, get involved to change it! If we simply demand the fall of NAR there will be consequences. The NAR run mls systems will be bought by corporations who only care about profit. The lawsuits opened the door and it has already happened in some areas.
Set the MLS’s up as Realtor co-ops. Selling them off to private groups is not a bright idea.
Long overdue move. Better late than never. More changes are coming. Those of us who are professionals have to remain committed to the cause of home ownership and property rights.
NAR crapped on it’s paying, professional Members with NO INPUT, NO VOTE and the radical “Settlement” that hurts Buyers and their Agents. What a disgusting organization! The ONLY reason we remain a member is for the darn Forms, that is it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They should be disbanded!