So since I went solo from being Justin Ippoliti's buyer's agent for six years I have been trying to use my skill sets to stand out and market myself. One skill set I posses is web and graphic design as you can see if you are reading this.
Judgment of my skill not withstanding :) Agent or not, if you have ever been an entrepreneurial, enterprising person you know that you need every tool available to you. Typically we start with a small budget, a small audience and determination to succeed. What ever industry you are in, you hope to find yourself surrounded by people that wish you successes and do what they reasonably can to help.
I have been disappointed by our local MLS and the politics surrounding what would seem like an innocuous system. I have found leadership unwilling to listen to agent concerns. I have found what I belive is obvious conflict of interest, and perhaps anti-competitive practice.
From Metro MLS's mission statement:
Throughout our history, we have focused on five core values: Cooperation, fair housing first, real accurate, real time real estate data, a member-focused approach, and being a pacesetter. We believe its essential for us to operate by these values, so we continue to push the industry forward and remain one of the top MLSs in the country...Metro MLS also is a founding member of MLS Aligned, a group of forward-thinking MLSs focusing on revolutionizing the real estate industry.... |
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The local MLS board and you.
The local MLS board consists of local leaders in the real estate community and the CEO who has currently held the spot for close to 14 years.
One issue with the board is that it is insular.
From what I can find online ( I did not find Metro specific procedures published online) most MLSs, the members are elected by a vote of the participating real estate brokers or agents (my understanding is that there are no agents on our board) who are members of the associated Realtor association. (Read: the people on the board decide who gets to join) As you can imagine if a more politically prominent person on the board does not want a potential candidate to be elected, soft pressure would be easy to apply.
So our board is made up of people that come into positions of power who are not democratically elected, have no agent oversight, have a governing role of a tool that we use daily and need to survive but as agents we have no right to address them in person.
We are shutout even though we collectively pay for the system and the data.
As history shows us again and again, insular bodies with little or no accountability are not systems in which results are optimized. Without public scrutiny and feedback the body tends to become an echo chamber. Usually power brokers come to the fore and sycophants or yes-people happy to be in a position of meaning or around power fall into place fearful to speak out if they disagree.
In the next few days I will publish a video detailing my recent interactions with the board, the CEO and the disappoint I found when realizing they did not give a shit.
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