Whenever I hear REALTORS, or anyone for that matter, beating their chest that they subcribe to a “higher” standard I think of this famous letter from Abraham Lincoln:

My dear,
It has been my experience that those with no vices have very few virtues.
They just haven’t lived enough to have enough true virtues.
For living, truly living, means encountering vices which hold you so dearly that you never leave them. And continuing to live with those vices is what develops true virtues.
A man cannot be considered strong unless he’s been battle tested. And a person cannot have true virtues unless they’ve been tested with vices they cannot resist.
This is what I know.
Falsely yours,
Abraham Lincoln

[Emphasis mine, not Abe’s.]

People will deem you trustworthy by your actions, not by the pin you put on your lapel, the collar around your neck, or your address on Wall Street.

While some think yesterday’s approval of changes to the operating agreement between the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) and MOVE,Inc. are incremental I’m pretty impressed. Here’s why.

As reported by Andrea V. Brambila from Inman News:

NAR approves ‘historic’ changes to realtor.com operating agreement

“At a much-anticipated special meeting in Chicago, the board of directors of the National Association of Realtors voted today to give realtor.com operator Move Inc. more flexibility to publish listings from sources beyond those provided by Realtors, including additional new homes and rental properties”

I’m calling out this one section of the agreement because I think its significant. This is going to make the loyal REALTOR blue members bat-shit crazy. You can already see it in the comments of article itself. They are all screaming what about our “code of ethics!” You are destroying our brand. Blah, blah, blah. NAR knew this was going to be a big issue with a vocal portion of their members and and they still did it. That my friend is what you call leadership.

NAR also caught a ton of shit from their membership for the rebranding of REALTOR.com. Some of their members lost their freaking minds because the letter “R” wasn’t capitalized. WTF?

The issues facing REALTORS are not ethics or capitalization, the issue is relevance. It seems NAR is finally getting it.