Remember, now’s a great time to buy real estate….hey I remember saying that exact thing in 2004-05.

Hey, I guess it’s ALWAYS a great time to buy real estate, no?

Please explain to me how so little is done with so much.

Please start with why there is NO health care options worth mentioning.

Of course we did get the short sale white paper, which has solved all most a few next to none of the short sale issues.

I won’t complain about the $80, but I would like to see better use of these funds.

$7.2 million for economic and tech research? In light off how freakin dead wrong their economists have been, I have to assume they just paid some dip minimum wage to tell the world on a daily basis that “It’s a great time to buy real estate”. Given what was a wasted investment there, and they have no tech to speak about, please tell me they didnt spend the rest of it to get Carpenter a new laptop and wireless card so he can tweet on the road.

I would pay more to not have them discriminate against those who don’t pay on realtor.com.

Trulia and Zillow offer much more. If there was not a need they would not be growing as much. I remember a few years ago no seller had heard of them, not so now.

I also had to chuckle at the fact that $0 goes to “Volunteer Leadership”.

Thanks for showing me the value in that one. I thought those volunteers were rolling in the dough.

Alright, so I’m being a bit sarcastic, but they truly are amazing numbers. Do they give us the numbers on what’s being made outside our dues anywhere? I remember during the whole float debacle, they said that was paid for with non-dues money as well. How much is flowing in there? Would love to know. Do they get any of the cut for Realtor.com or is it just a flat fee? I hope they’re a least getting a percentage of the extortion, I mean, fees to upgrade listings.

It is pretty amazing that some of the outside sites like Trulia and Zillow actually offer you more bang for your zero bucks. I haven’t even visited Realtor.com in quite some time. I wish Trulia and Zillow could have data as accurate as Realtor.com, but to be honest, I’d rather use them.

I just need to figure out how to run my own national association – there’s gold in ‘dem ‘dar hills.

I wonder – does the NAR make money from the ads on R.com?

What about ripping off members by using members’ listings/data to create money by charging those same members for leads generated from their own listings/data?

What about pushing the Sentrilock lock box system via local associations that are in cahoots with them despite Sentrilock being more expensive to members while being inferior to the current lock box system in place (which lowers the level of service and safety that Realtors can provide consumers).

And the list goes on…

As Russell said, “They need to stop doing destructive things towards Realtors.”

To me, the real opportunity is about what “could” be done with just shy of ONE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR?

For starters IMHO – WTH – $18,000,000 for Consumer and Member RELATIONSHIP building? I don’t have a relationship with NAR. Neither do most of the agent I know or work with.

$7,200,000 for Economic and Technological Research – Odd? Less than 10% of the budget invested in the FUTURE and our race to out think, out deliver, out innovate and out kick-ass against future and current competitors. Come on, less than 10% invested in the future?

I don’t know how you spend $346,000 a week (18million) on Consumer and Member Relationships…how much is that a day. Somebody is enjoying some sweet relationship building. (Lori it they aren’t buying you cocktails and other stuff, you’re getting screwed.)

It also sounds weird to spend $4,800,000 or $92,000 per week or almost $10,000 per day, seven days a week, on Code of Ethic/Legal Policy Enforcement and also spend the same pile of dough on something that seems eminently more important – Customer Service and Produce Suite. (I wonder who’s the customer, “us” or the “public”?) I’m not saying rules don’t have to enforced but I know if I spend the same amount on legal as I do customer service, I lose in the long run.

That’s my take. I’m impressed with the total collection, I’m underwhelmed by what our dues actually provides. I could be wrong, but with this amount of money at stake, it’s no wonder that people in power want to protect their turf, lock things down and meet in private.

NAR spends $1,846,000 per week. Wow!

BZZZT. WRONG! You get MORE for free on Trulia, Zillow, and other sites. You can put as many pictures as you want, often add virtual tours, links to your own site, etc. Trulia and Zillow FREE run circles around what you have to PAY big bucks for to get on REALTOR.COM. The REALTOR.COM “free” listing is a JOKE, even though they now let you have 4 pictures! Holy hannah, 4???? Gosh, I’m so overwhelmed by the generosity.

I do agree that the stuff on Realtor.org is certainly a bargain. I would pay more per year for NAR dues ($120 or so) if it meant I could have those fancy “ENHANCED” listings at no additional crazy monthly fee!

Yes, the NAR dues aren’t that expensive – but don’t go trying to put REALTOR.COM in there as something valuable. It’s nothing – NOTHING – for NAR to be proud of. Why do you think Trulia and Zillow have so quickly put the heat onto REALTOR.COM? How long do you think REALTOR.COM is going to REMAIN #1?

I’ve had enhanced listings through my broker for two years. In all that time, I have had three or four inquiries directly from R.com; one did lead to a double ended sale but that was last year. Someone else called THE OFFICE after seeing my listing on R.com and the floor time agent sold the house to them. SO in two years time, I have had two sales as a result of R.com.

And many more as a result of my own blog/website. Let’s be serious. R.com as it is now is nothing to be proud of….they should be ashamed for gouging the very people that power it.

Agents should stop paying for Realtor.com’s ridiculously overpriced “enhancements”. That might be the final straw that would force them into providing something that’s actually useful to agents, and ends the extortion of making us pay to get our own data back. Data that we already paid to provide to the MLS!