Many states are jumping on the bandwagon and suing Countrywide for their unscrupulous business dealings. This effort may be seen as an effort to fight against all lending companies that during the big real estate boom made money from unaware homebuyers.

Attorney General Darrell McGraw filed suit against Countrywide Financial Corporation, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., Countrywide Home Loans Servicing, LP, Full Spectrum Lending, Inc., and Angelo R. Mozilo, individually and as CEO of Countrywide Financial Corporation.

McGraw is alleging that Countrywide made loan arrangement in the state of West Virginia that were unaffordable and insensible. The loans not only have affected consumers in the state of West Virginia but throughout the US. The question is, was Countrywide the only real estate broker wanting to get it on the real estate bubble and make billions of money before the bubble burst?

A few of the ways that Countrywide enticed homebuyers is the same exact ways that many other lending companies were working with consumers over the last few years. These examples include offering a teaser rate for between two and five years, then resetting the interest rate at a much higher rate which made the loans unaffordable. This is not the only way they enticed consumers. Other such enticements including no down payment. However, with the no down agreement in 15 years a large balloon would be due that was close to the same amount the homebuyer borrowed in the first place.

Question. Who is watching over the lending practices of any type of lending institution? When loan companies such as Countrywide can scam people into making a loan higher than they can afford, the entire economy suffers. Not only will the property value go down in the neighborhood where the foreclosure happens to be, but also as you are seeing today, many banks are in trouble. Investors pull their money out of the lending market, then you see banks and the stock market weakening.

More real estate agents need to work alongside their homebuyers and home sellers when it comes to working with any lending company. If more agents were involved in the process and really have their clientele’s best interest at heart, they could help prevent such catastrophes. If homebuyers would sit down with their real estate agent and fill out all the appropriate information, the agent could show them how much they could afford to pay monthly. Not only this, but agents could explain all the tricky wording of the various loans and explain to their clientele what all of these means to their pocket. In order to fight the big dogs, you have to know what you are up against and working together with knowledgeable and trustworthy real estate agents may be the biggest key to the real estate slump. Consumers do not know whom they can trust when they see big lending companies such as Countrywide scamming them so they lose their homes.

Yes, this will be work for the agent, however, as agents, a smile on the face of your clients for helping them find their dream home they can afford and the money you will make from a good deal should be worth the effort. Going that extra mile with a client will provide you with more clients and you will become a pillar among the rest of the agents and lending companies that look at clients as dollar signs.

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.