The National Association of Realtors will not rate its members or impose new standards of entry to join associations, but members will face higher educational requirements after a vote by the trade group’s board.
The nearly 850-member NAR board of directors has approved policy recommendations that direct NAR’s leadership team to create a new “Code of Excellence” educational requirement and make the current requirement to complete Realtor Code of Ethics training biennial instead of quadrennial.
The policy recommendations came from a presidential advisory group of about 30 members called “Realtor of the Future” appointed in May by then-NAR President Steve Brown. The yet-to-be developed ldquo;Code of Excellence” is the trade group’s latest effort to “raise the bar” of professionalism in the industry.
“The Code of Ethics … really lays out clearly what we should not do. The Code of Excellence lays out what we should do,” Brown said. The Code of Excellence will “train the Realtor that they are not single-minded. That to be a good Realtor they must be community-involved, they must be politically aware and they must engage with the consumer in every facet of their community life.”
Code of Excellence training will cover such issues as consumer privacy protection, data accuracy, political advocacy, technology, professional courtesies and social media — all topics currently covered by NAR’s educational offerings, but that the trade group would like to offer in a concise educational program, Brown said.
Current NAR President Chris Polychron will appoint another presidential advisory group to develop the Code of Excellence. He said he is not yet certain whether the group will have something to present to members at NAR’s midyear conference in May.
“The Code of Ethics is over a hundred years old. The way we sell real estate has changed and in order for us to remain at the heart of every deal” Realtors need to adjust, Polychron said. “We don’t want disintermediation.”
The Code of Excellence will be an educational requirement members must complete every two years. With the board vote, starting in 2016, Realtors must also complete Code of Ethics training every two years, instead of every four years.
When asked whether the quadrennial requirement was not enough, Brown said, “It has been more than efficient. But more is better and keeping the code in front of our members on a more regular basis certainly cannot hurt and can inspire members about what the code stands for and how we should be conducting our business.”
The NAR board also approved a policy recommendation stipulating that NAR will use its size and scale to make sure Realtors have the best data available for their real estate practice. A desire to provide Realtors with “more efficient MLS systems,” included in the original proposals, was not included in the final version of the policy.
While the particulars of this policy also have yet to be developed, the policy is about Realtors being “content data knowledgeable” in their work, Brown said.
“NAR will be helping the Realtor with all kinds of research data … from MLS to RPR to analytical predictive statistics. The Realtor needs to have the knowledge that all of that information can provide,” he said.
“All of that information is free and available to the consumer … (but sometimes) it’s like taking a drink from a fire hydrant. The Realtor’s responsibility is to take that information and put it into a workable form for the consumer to make good decisions.”
A fourth approved policy recommendation, originally worded “NAR should develop a methodology to rate Realtors” was reworded to “NAR will develop an industry standard for models to allow consumers to fairly and more accurately evaluate Realtors.”
The policy emphasizes that NAR itself will not rate members, but rather develop guidelines that other ratings sites would be encouraged to use to more accurately rate Realtors.
A fifth policy proposal from the original presidential advisory group report did not make it to a board vote. The proposal would have directed NAR to explore increasing the standards of entry into Realtor associations by improving the education, credentials and professionalism of all Realtors.
Its objective was “to further distinguish the Realtor from the non-Realtor licensee, and to provide better customer service” perhaps through additional entry level educational requirements or a mentoring or apprenticeship program.
Brown said the proposal did not go forward to the board of directors because NAR leaders felt the other four proposals would address educational and training requirements on an ongoing basis and they were not necessarily better addressed under initiation of Realtor membership.
