Scott Kucirek was appointed to lead the development and implementation of a groundbreaking initiative, CALMLS, by the California Association of Realtors. Kucirek has all the expertise that is needed to bring about a huge change in the world of real estate in California, however, will this change the Multi Listing Service as much as realtor’s really need.

How many times have you had a client visit the multi listing and then contact you about a property to learn quickly the home was sold three or four months ago? This catastrophe is not just happening on San Diego real estate but occurring all across America. Due to this, many homebuyers are put off rather than grasping the internet for their source for finding their dream home. You can imagine the distraught feelings for those wishing to move to the San Diego area from out of state trying to find a home to buy using the internet. Many times, they will search and search for a home that fits their lifestyle and then call a realtor to learn that the home was sold and not taken out of the online database. Since the homebuyer is not in the state is can be quite devastating for them when searching.

If any type of MLS is going to work to help realtor’s they must be kept up to date and as much information as possible be accessible to the Realtor. Realtors in order to sell homes on the market need a bit more information that is normally find in the databases. No matter what side of the MLS you are on, home buyer or realtor, the information is often misleading or is totally left out. Realtors should have a private area in which to learn more about properties on the market including if they are in the process of foreclosure. Too many times, a realtor and home buyer learn after putting in a bid that the home is owned by a bank and is up for bids instead of purchasing for the price listed on the MLS. This is not only hurtful for the realtor’s relationship with the buyer but is hard on the realtor’s pocketbook as well. All the time spent with the client to learn they are now in a bidding war.

However, the California Association of Realtors states, “Scott has a proven track-record of leading large teams of people to achieve superior results. He’s demonstrated his ability to identify and expand new markets, streamline complex systems and create more efficient processes in real estate through even better uses of technology best practices,” hopefully he will be able to implement the proper designs and multi listing software programs that will work for both realtor and home buyer.

The current housing crisis has forced many REALTORS® to seek employment other than their given profession.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) reports continued losses in Membership for 12 straight months. Since peeking in October 2006 at 1,370,758 Members the organization has seen a steady loss in Membership to the figure of 1,257,491 in July of 2008. This represents 113,267 REALTORS® leaving the industry or better than 8%. While this is significant the losses for the last 12 months shows a considerably more rapid exit by real estate agents and practitioners.

One would expect that in an industry as hard hit as real estate has been since the so called “Real Estate Bubble” burst would experience an exodus but at this pace? Can part of the problem be the guardian of the industry? Could it be that NAR itself has aided in many cutting many careers short? Possibly but let me explain my reasons why I think NARS actions and inactions helped to aggravate an already serious problem.

To begin with NAR has set themselves up as the “Gate Keeper” to all that is real estate. Our government recognizes NAR as an authority. Our court system even holds non-NAR members to the same code of ethics sighting our code of ethics as “accepted and acceptable business practices”. With all that said why didn’t NAR make a stronger case on Capital Hill against sub prime lending? We certainly have the lobbyist and are reminded of the same in almost every Local Board meeting nationwide weekly. NAR could have made a major impact that would have helped to reduce the damage suffered by our industry. The answer is simple. During the recent real estate boom NAR Membership (and income from dues) skyrocketed from 763,585 in January of 2001 to 1,370,758 in October 2006. That is an amazing 44.3% increase. That is why NAR did not interfere with the sub prime debacle to any significant degree.

But now that we are here, what is NAR doing to help their declining Members? They are allowing Local Boards to raise or implement fees such as IDX access fees or raising dues completely. Between MLS fees, State Dues, National Dues, IDX Access fees, Super Key Fees and all of the other fees going up it is no wonder REALTORS® are abandoning ship and going out of business. It makes no sense to me. It is almost like an SUV Dealer going up on his vehicles because they are not selling. Someone please explain the logic here.

NAR needs to get off their collective asses and reign in their Local Boards. We need help not more or higher fees.

Our Local Board here in San Diego (SANDICOR) just went to a RETS (Real Estate Transaction Standard) system that replaced the old IDX (Internet Data Exchange) for the MLS (Multiple Listing Service). In addition to being a total disaster leaving outdated data on our San Diego real estate site for days, we are told there will be a new monthly fee associated with the new RETS service. This comes AFTER I paid my website guy to change over to RETS. Now I did NOT ask to go to RETS but have already had out of pocket expenses. This RETS update is a NAR mandate however, NAR states that all Boards must offer RETS by mid 2009, not replace IDX.

Both NAR and our state and local boards need to figure out ways to help real estate Agents make more income instead of ways to help us spend more. Otherwise we can look to our ranks to continue to diminish.