“Realtor” Officially a Curse Word
After RealtorGenius.com was served with a cease and desist letter last fall and became AgentGenius.com, there was a lot of uproar. No biggie, a bigger tribal brand was born anyhow- take that, Rdotcom!
Now, Facebook has decided to disallow users to list homes in their marketplace but private time toys and terrorist paraphernalia still make the cut? That’s low, Facebook. What’s next, a local Realtor Association closing down a Facebook group for using the golden word “Realtor” in it? No way…
Seriously, what’s next? What is different between forming a group online or using the word Realtor in your URL than putting it on your business card or company name- they are both forms of marketing?!?!? Way to go NAR & NVAR, you’ve officially made “Realtor” classify as a curse word.
PS: for those of you offended at my flagrant use of the “R WORD”, I do apologize that I have upset your senses with my lack of self censorship.
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This article published on Tuesday, February 5th, 2008 at 3:24 pm | Contact the editor
Topics: Public Relations, Residential
About this Columnist (Full Profile)
AGBeat Editor-in-Chief: Lani, named one of Real Estate’s 100 Most Influential, as well as 12 Most Influential Women in Real Estate, is a business writer hailing from the great state of Texas in the city of Austin. As a digital native, Lani is immersed not only in advanced technologies and new media, but is also a stats nerd often burried in piles of reports. Lani is a proven leader, thoughtful speaker, and vested partner at AGBeat.
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Benn Rosales
Conal Campbell
Elijah May
Lani Rosales
Tara Steele
Marti Trewe
Charlene Jimenez
Leave it to Lani & her ‘trucker like’ mouth to break this story.
Just to be safe, I just went ahead preemptively took it out of my email signature along with my beloved e-PRO credentials. Not sure if I want to flaunt that around either anymore.
I’m thinking that pretty soon, people may start talking to me again
Andy, I just did the same, I’d remove the naughty language from he sidebar but apparently we have to disclose it to identify ourselves- I don’t get it! arg#$@%@#%$
I just joined the group… I can at least say I was ‘there.’
Thanks for the NARWisdom fodder. This is simply…. appalling.
This little bit of stupidity ranks WAY up the list.
I can’t believe you used the “R” word – consider your mouth washed out with soap!
should I go to time out? when people ask what my husband does for a living, should i say, “he’s a ‘R word’”? is saint joseph the patron saint of the “r word”?
Does that mean that someone who is an “R” ranks below us used car salesmen?
Lani, just don’t bury Benn in the yard upside down, oh, that’s a different saint.
different saint, but DANG that’s funny!!!
here’s the new official “R” business card- feel free to pop your OWN picture in… http://twitpic.com/1f
Love the new business card. I may have to use that… It appears that I need to go through my MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc and do some housecleaning. I’m afraid I may not be compliant! Big brother is watching.
To top it off I got an email from YouTube tonight letting me know they took down my daughters “YMCA” cruise video for copyright violation. You can find 13,601, oops, strike that, 13,600 videos of “YMCA” on there… Must be an election year. ;?)
On a serious note, I think that’s what is frustrating Dale- sometimes it feels so arbitrary! If it were commonplace it would be no big deal, but if your traffic gets hot, you’re sticking your neck out there, I suppose.
NAR has every right to protect their copyright, but to punish actual members of NAR? I understand if non-agents like ME tried to use the word, but paying association members? Sheesh.
Frank here. I’m the one with the Facebook page that was shut down.
The NVAR CEO actually told one of the facebook members that they needed to “Take off that NVAR pin” because they were part of an “NVAR unofficial” facebook page. I don’t think that was a very professional way to approach a newer member.
Frank Borges LL0SA
Broker
Blog.FranklyRealty.com
What is that? A pledge pin? ON YOUR UNIFORM?!??
Sorry, first thing that popped to mind. At this point, there’s nothing NAR or the locals can do that will surprise me.
and don’t even think about using the copyrighted initials for Major League Soccer. The term “MLS” is now taboo for NAR members to use. Neeeexxxxt.
The National Association of Rocketry has a problem with us using the acronym for M. Licht & Son, Midcontinent Livestock Supplements and Multi-Lingual Software? (all of which have trademarked some version of “MLS”)
Lani,
Go check out the discussion over at VARBuzz.com about RPAC
There have been numbers of cease and desist letters lately going out about the use of the word Realtor if you are not a member of the NAR. My office has gotten 3 (The agents in my office that is).
And this is what I get charged for? The NAR running around spending money issuing cease and desist letters and going after bloggers and such. Yea..that makes sense. Reminds me of the music industry and the whole Napster /download fiasco
OMG – the new R business card is too funny!