NAR will dip into reserves as RPR funding boosted to $22 million per year

Andrea Brambila for Inman News:

“Since 2009, NAR has spent $85 million on RPR, including $19 million in expenditures last year alone, according to NAR Finance Committee reports. By the end of 2014, the trade group will have spent $98.9 million on RPR, an amount that is projected to rise to $120.8 million by the end of 2015 and $142.7 million by the end of 2016.”

Almost 100 million dollars? What happens when you login to RPR, do you shit gold?

“RPR provides property information and data tools to all Realtors, but its business model originally assumed that the venture would become self-sustaining by 2012 by selling analytics products such as property valuations to lenders and government agencies. In the four years since its launch, RPR has struggled to make money, generating a total of $586,270 in revenue from analytics as of December 2013.”

$586,270 – $100,000,000 is a loss of -$994,137,730. Yup, sounds about right.

“The NAR Finance Committee approved net reductions to reserves in order to provide members with “exciting new and enhanced programming.”

Someone famous once said, if you are in a hole and want to get out, the first thing you do is stop digging.

“She said RPR will also use the funding “to add additional data sources, such as walkability scores, support the release of RPR’s mobile application for iPhone and Android (currently being tested), and enhance the RPR platform to include new user-requested features and advanced functionality.”

Just of the record, I pay less than $400 per month for Walkability scores in Cloud CMA. The fact they even mention this speaks volumes.

“NAR expects its 2015 operating budget will consist of $154.8 million in gross revenue and program expenses of $158.9 million. RPR is by far the program with the biggest budget.”

The National Association of REALTORS is not a technology company, but RPR has the biggest budget? Someone is getting rich here.