Redfin (NASDAQ:RDFN) has announced it will end its support of the National Association of Realtors (NAR), citing the organization’s fee requirements and what it dubbed as “a pattern of alleged sexual harassment.”
“We’ve had many meetings with NAR execs to explore compromises on the policies that would let us continue our support,” said Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman in a blog post announcing the Seattle-based company’s decision. “Since a Redfin-wide initiative to join NAR in 2017, we’ve paid more than $13 million in dues, in an effort to influence NAR to advocate for an open, technology-driven marketplace that would benefit consumers. We’ll now explore other ways to advance those goals.”
Kelman added that in “many marketplaces governed by its policies, NAR still blocks sellers from listing homes that don’t pay a commission to the buyer’s agent, and it blocks websites like Redfin.com from showing for-sale-by-owner listings alongside agent-listed homes. Removing these blocks would be easy, and it would make our industry more consumer-friendly and competitive.”
Kelman stated that Redfin resigned from NAR’s national board prior to the news coverage alleging that its president, Kenny Parcell, was accused was sexual harassment. Parcell resigned his position, but Kelman was not satisfied with NAR’s handling of the matter.
“We’d already been uncomfortable with the NAR’s positions on commissions when we read reports of sexist behavior and sexual harassment, by the NAR’s president and others, based on interviews with 29 former NAR employees,” he said. “NAR was aware of the allegations for months and in some cases years, but reacted only when those allegations became public, and only after the CEO said there wasn’t a problem. Many employees described a culture of intimidation and retribution; many are still calling for more accountability.”
Kelman went further by demanding that its broker and agents also leave NAR – a situation which he blamed solely on the trade organization.
“NAR rules require us to leave local and state associations even when our only beef is with the national association,” he continued. “The rules require that for a broker to be a member, she must pay dues for each of the agents under her supervision, regardless of whether an agent wants to be a member. The rules further say that if a broker isn’t a member, no agent under her supervision can be a member. This is like eating at a restaurant that requires you to buy food for your entire family even when you come in alone, and that also says no family member can dine there if you ever stop dining there too. The painful choice is to stop patronizing that restaurant altogether.”
Kelman challenged NAR to change its policies regarding access to multiple listing services (MLS), stating that in many markets membership in the organization is required for agents to access listing databases, lockboxes and industry-standard contracts.
“Redfin will continue our full support of the MLSs that brokers use to share listing data, and we’ll remain friends with the many fine people working at NAR and its local affiliates on economics, diversity, and pro-housing policies,” Kelman said. “We love our industry. We’ve tried to love NAR. But enough is enough.”
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Good. Goidbye.
Reality today. Women today take exception to things their mothers let go. It’s not gone unnoticed with me, that many people are single today. It seems Redfin, however, has used this issue as cover for other motives. Redfin wants greater access to realtor information. Money may be the root of this.
NAR would like to have themselves held as a standard of professionalism. They are a fraud to the business and provide nothing but confusion in a confidence scam on the industry. Stop paying to pretend to be a business professional and invest the same money in your own business and education. The return on investment is vastly greater in growing your business and your personal professional abilities. Good for Redfin for having the money to influence and bring the sham to light . The only thing not mentioned is the fallacy of the “R” . Brokers should take a more active role in their own market interests and not just sign off as NAR has them covered. They do not.
I’m sorry, what is your complaint??
Will they still be members of different MLSs? The Intermountain MLS requires membership of NAR so they would not have those listings? Curious how this will work for Redfin?
This is another attempt by another leftist organization to dumb down the rules. In this case, it is the rules of the NAR. It is obvious that the NAR requires a higher standard for its Realtor members than Kelman requires for Redfin employees/agents/members. When agents are members of the NAR it means that we are all working under the same rules. Bringing up the issue of Kenny Parcell, which is more than likely a one-off situation is their attempt to create a little chaos. It is unfortunate that people want to play these games.
Here we go. “…another leftist organization…” Yeah, It’s Biden’s fault, right?
Redfin did not “support” NAR. It joined NAR as a cooperative member.
Redfin is just another player who thinks they can re create the real estate wheel. What they really want to do is slice buyer agent’s commissions out of the transaction.
Wait til the Redfin agents begin leaving.
Bored with “leftist” vs. “rightists”. Not relevant in any way.
I agree with some of Redfin’s objections regarding required membership of the Broker and all agents and not allowing an agent (a salesperson) to join an MLS unless their Broker joins that MLS too, etc.
There are legal issues with the Broker being the actual agent for the client, with sales people being a semi-independent employee.
Nevertheless, many salespeople (I will call them agents) would like to join various MLS systems where there Broker is not a member, but they are not allowed to do that under NAR and the state and local associations of Realtors rules. Thus, it can get very expensive and even prohibitive for an agent to join an MLS in an area where they might get some extra business in an area outside of their Broker’s normal range.
Redfin can do what it wants to do, as NAR does what it wants to do too.
I ran into these prohibitive fees with an out of area listing last year, and it was very frustrating. I am a broker myself, but because I hang my license with a big brokerage, it was also required to have them join. Big brokerage did not absorb the fee, so it was close to $2000 for me to properly market one listing by adding it to the local MLS.
I do wish, as a buyer myself, and as a listing agent, that all of the data was in one place. This includes transparency on who is the listing agent, and who is paying for ad space, so it doesn’t confuse consumers. Kudos to *whoever* in the industry does this.
When it comes to the politics, I think NAR should create a DAO for the members to vote, and actually use our dues to exercise what the active members want and need. Great if they provide information, experts, and resources along with that. Just my opinion but I believe the next generation is tired of the hierarchy 🙂
It is interesting that few salespeople or brokers comment on the dues that we all pay, a portion of which are then funneled into political campaigns that support or oppose various politicians or various legislative bills or various state propositions that go onto ballots.
I object to my dues being used for those purposes because I may have a different opinion on politicians and bills than NAR or my state association has.
The anti-union people are quick to object to workers being forced to pay union dues that often are funneled into political efforts that the Union supports, but that a worker may not support as an individual.
But, when it comes to NAR and the state and local associations and our dues being funneled into political causes, I hear almost no objection from those same people who criticize union dues being used for political purposes.
That is a double standard.
I would prefer that our dues would only go to pay for running our realtor business costs, like the MLS systems, etc.
I have no objections to the associations presenting their point of view, but my dues should not have to pay for that, not unless all of us are allowed to present our views too on equal footing, which would be cumbersome with so many members.
Even if you select the option to deny some of your realtor dues going to political efforts, that portion of your dues still goes into a general political fund, and I have tried to trace where that money goes and how it is spent, and after 3 weeks of calls and emails, I gave up, which I think was the purpose of NOT answering my questions….just wear them out, and they will go away.
I know many realtors who do not always agree with NAR and their local organizations on various political issues, but they tell me that they are afraid to speak out for fear of being targeted or perhaps fired, or simply be ignored.
To be clear, I do agree with some of NAR’s positions and will act to support those efforts. But other efforts I take the opposite view. However, my dues are being funneled into political people and legislative bills that are hard to track where that money goes, but the funding that I have been able to track are often NOT what I want supported with my money.
it is actually ironic that NAR and its associations often ask us to write to our legislatures to fight against something, when it was NAR and its associations that helped to elect the people who often support bills that NAR later opposes, but NAR should have known that would happen due to the politicians platforms before they were elected.
Just weird and frustrating.
Nar and their stranglehold on the real estate market is a monopoly that needs to be dissolved. At best it is an oligopoly at the state level. Where else do you find ANY trade associations that get paid on both ends? Realtors pay to be members so they can utilize the various MLSs across the country, then they (NAR, State & Local associations) turn around and re-sell the listing information that agents expend sizable resources of both time and money. Buyers are the the various aggregator sites (Realtor.com, Zillow, etc.) who then utilize this same data to generate leads to charge realtors A SECOND TIME to collect the lead information generated by the fruit of their labor, talent and money!! Are you freaking kidding me? This is RIPE for a class-action suit by ALL REALTORS!!!!
It’s not NAR, the State or local associations that re-sell the listing information, but the various MLS’s that do this. The MLS’s are the ones that allow Agents listings to be used by Zillow so Zillow can turn around and charge Agents for the leads. Zillow became big and powerful off the listings, backs, and hard work of Real Estate Agents.
As to political lobbying I think our industry would be in far worse shape without NAR’s political efforts at lobbing. Think about how draconian our regulations would be from all those ‘well intention bureaucrats’ not to mention the IRS. The fact is our organization has a lot of clout. Most of you are far too young to remember that at one time the IRS decided we agents were not independent contractors and went after the brokers for all the back FICA & employment taxes. Many brokers were bankrupted. Our NAR stepped in and save the day by getting special legislation to exempt Realtors. I’ll always appreciate their work behind the behind the scenes. That is the intangible benefit and yes NAR could do better, but think about the state of affairs of our government now as it was 50 years ago.
Redfin’s ideas about how this should work are a threat to realtors. Bye Bye