Open Letter to National Association of Real Estate Editors #NAREE17

IMG_1695

Open Letter to #NAREE17

Greetings, members of the National Association of Real Estate Editors

As a longtime real estate consumer advocate and industry critic, look forward to your live tweets and event coverage during and after #NAREE17 this week in Denver. For those editors who invite story ideas, hope the image above or issues in the link below get your attention (or even attract interest from investigative journalists outside real estate):

http://bit.ly/MassAGOv3 (share via social media)

At a minimum, invite #NAREE members, real estate regulators and others to compare CRE’s list of leading issues to those held by consumer advocates. Regrettably, real estate continues to be the “Sleeping Giant of Consumer Movement,” but after a decade of being off the radar screen, maybe that’s about to change:

Will Wall St cause ConsumerAdvocates to revisit #RealEstate Cartel?

http://bit.ly/REvisitCartel (share via social media)

If you are not interested in the story ideas but know anyone — including journalism students — who might be, please forward this Open Letter as well as contact information.  Glad to make referrals to subject experts including attorneys and at least one former regulator who can provide their perspectives on a range of issues including the mispresentation documented above.

Bill Wendel
@RealEstateCafe
http://RE2020.Loomio.org
http://bit.ly/SeeBWLinkedIn
Sent from my iPad: 617-661-4046

Related Articles

Monday, November 21, 2005 at 11:00 PM

Banks as Real Estate Brokers: The Consumer Perspective
RealtyTimes.com: April 30, 2001

This new generation of information technologies, new business models and new players will raise a wide variety of consumer issues. Without an organized consumer effort, the future of this trillion-dollar industry will be defined by two titans: NAR, which ranks No. 15 on Fortune magazine’s list of the most powerful lobbying groups; and ABA, which ranks No. 11.

As a counterbalance, a coalition of consumer groups could be formed to coauthor a long-overdue Real Estate Consumer Bill of Rights, both to correct ongoing problems and guide the industry’s evolution. This Real Estate Consumer Alliance, or RECALL, could include a variety of groups including CFA, Consumers Union (publishers of Consumer Reports), National Consumer Law Center, National Consumers League, American Council on Consumer Interests, Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, Electronic Privacy Information Center, Consumer Project on Technology, USPIRG and AARP. Because homebuyers and sellers have the most to gain – an average savings of $6,000 per transaction, according to the Wall Street Journal – RECALL could be self-funded through online donations from the anticipated $30 billion annually in savings. That kind of savings should be enough to wake the average consumer. But time is running out to wake the sleeping giant.

http://realtytimes.com/rtapages/20010430_view.htm

Responses

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

HTML Snippets Powered By : XYZScripts.com