Are You Forced to Pay NAR Dues ?

[Drew Barnes (Illinois)]

I have seen several comments about PAC money and how NAR does not care about the appraisers? How many of us are forced to be a member of NAR to have MLS access?

I work in the Peoria, Tazewell, & Woodford County area in Central Illinois. The area is largely covered by one MLS, but to belong to the MLS and have the data I need to perform an appraisal assignment, I MUST be a member of both the IAR (Illinois Association of Realtors) and the NAR. There are 79 appraisers in the Peoria area MLS who are forced to be NAR members. This does not account for the handful who are also Realtors.

Is this typical in most areas of the country? Are there collectively enough of us out here in the same position that we might get NAR to hear our cries?

Post up the data in your local market. I'm curious to know how many members it takes to get NAR to act on our account. Do we need 10,000 / 50,000 / or more ???

Will NAR be willing to help us if we all walk out and they can't close a sale?

Desperate times call for desperate measures!!!

 

[Mike Kennedy]

Just another day in Paradise Drew - cost of doing business. When 1 or 2 or 5 appraisal fees support tens of thousands of appraisal fees (or more) .....doubt sincerely the local Realtors Board or State or National NAR will even hear a whimper never mind "cries". In my markets - not only Local Board membership but mandatory State NAR membership PLUS MLS membership at the Broker level is required.

 

[Jerry Still]

Yep...What Mike said. I paid last December $1,495 for 2009 MLS data to the Greater Fort Myers and The Beach MLS. I'm a one man (Grunt) orifice. (pun intended)

Life's a Beach then you die,

JS

 

[Stone]

I pay NAR and WRA dues and have no problem with doing so. They are not forcing me to do anything and if I don't want access to the MLS, I can stop paying them. I also pay subscription fees for other services, some that require extra fees as well.

I deduct the PAC fee when I re-new each year, so I'm not paying that fee.

One of, if not THE, best investments in our business is buying that data.

 

[Drew Barnes (Illinois)]

I think you are all missing the point of my post. It's no about the cost of data. It's about being forced to be a mamber of NAR & IAR & is there enough of us in the same position to warrant help from NAR because we're members of their orginization?

 

[Stone]

I think you are all missing the point of my post. It's no about the cost of data. It's about being forced to be a mamber of NAR & IAR & is there enough of us in the same position to warrant help from NAR because we're members of their orginization?

No, I think we just disagree. I don't mind being "forced" to be a member of NAR or WRA in order to have access to the MLS. It is about the cost of the data, and membership dues are part of that cost.

Just because we don't agree wtih you doesn't mean we didn't understand your point.

 

[Bob Ipock]

I don't think anyone is forced.....you have a choice to join or not join. If you want to appraise you have to join to get the data.

I don't mind paying for data....MLS fees are high....but I am wiling to pay the price. However, I hate having top pay for to join my local NAR association. I HATE PAYING national, state and local NAR dues. I hate paying for luncheons I don't attend, travel expenses for board and committee members who love to travel, "NAR Image Awareness Assessment" fees.

I have no desire to associate with the vast majority of real estate sales people. My experience over 30 years has been that most of them care only about a commission and nothing else. The public agrees....real estate agents have a very poor ranking as to public trust and they have earned it. I very, very rarely act as an agent because I know that I will have to deal with some commission hungry agent that wants their money and has no regard for the buyer or seller in a transaction.

Sell me the MLS....but I could do without all the crap that you have to pay to get to the MLS......but then again....it is a choice and nobody is holding a gun to my head.

 

[Bama Bayou]

In my MLS appraisers make up about 8% of the membership (I wish it was 2%). From a national standpoint, I think that number is significant but to really make an impact we need to have find common ground with the Realtor house sellers to make any difference.

 

[Drew Barnes (Illinois)]

Ok... Let me rephrase the question. Are there enough appraisers that are NAR members to warrant some muscle from NAR in Washington to help with the HVCC and Fannie Mae issues that pose a threat to our industry?

The original post was never intended to complain about fees or membership.

 

[Stone]

I don't think anyone is forced.....you have a choice to join or not join. If you want to appraise you have to join to get the data.

I don't mind paying for data....MLS fees are high....but I am wiling to pay the price. However, I hate having top pay for to join my local NAR association. I HATE PAYING national, state and local NAR dues. I hate paying for luncheons I don't attend, travel expenses for board and committee members who love to travel, "NAR Image Awareness Assessment" fees.

I have no desire to associate with the vast majority of real estate sales people. My experience over 30 years has been that most of them care only about a commission and nothing else. The public agrees....real estate agents have a very poor ranking as to public trust and they have earned it. I very, very rarely act as an agent because I know that I will have to deal with some commission hungry agent that wants their money and has no regard for the buyer or seller in a transaction.

Sell me the MLS....but I could do without all the crap that you have to pay to get to the MLS......but then again....it is a choice and nobody is holding a gun to my head.

Our actual dues for the MLS are really low, so I don't mind paying the Realtor fees. I pretty much just look at it as the entire set of dues equals the fee for the MLS data. The whole cost for our local board and MLS dues is only about $900 per year. Best money spent every year.

However, it does bug me the way they bury the PAC dues. It is a pretty small amount of money, but it bugs me that they try and swindle it from people by including it as part of the bill. (They did make it more obvious this year, though).