The First Step in Taking Back our Profession!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen…it is time.

What we have all suspected to some degree and what many have known first hand…can now be proven, and it is disgusting.

I have in my posession a letter that was sent by Reece & Nichols real estate firm to all of its “Office Managers”.

The letter laments the fact that the licensing bill (pushed by the Missouri Association of Realtors) failed in 2007 and these folks want to take matters into their own hands.

How?

aimee@reeceandnichols.com invited all office managers to participate in a “survey” giving the names of home inspectors they know of and ranking them: Excellent, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Poor.

The web address to the survey is http://today.reeceandnichols.com/InspectorSurvey/Login.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2FInspectorSurvey%2FDefault.aspx but is password protected, so that only agents from this particular brokerage can participate.

Period. That’s it. An inspector’s name and one of these rankings next to it. The list will be published and passed out to all for them to use in selecting who they want to help them close their deals.

This is nothing more than a “boycott” list. How many guesses do you need to figure out the criteria for “Excellent” versus “Above Average”?

I would like to submit to you that we turn the tables on this group of morons.

What if NACHI members decided to boycott…that is, refuse to accept referrals…from Reece and Nichols salesmen?

Thoughts?

(A copy has already been sent to several Missouri legislators who have expressed an interest in helping stop the conflict of interest presented by the Missouri Association of Realtor’s attempt to control home inspectors by their legislative proposals.)

Agents complain about always being sued for negligent referral when a client isn’t happy with an inspector, but then they put out a list of inspectors not based on qualification, but based on the personal opinions of people outside the inspection indusry. Every time one of these inspectors gets sued the plaintiff’s attorney is going to include aimee’s company and point to that list. I’ll bet aimee forgot to run this dumb idea past her legal counsel.

  $99.00.........:eek:

Isn’t just grand that a law passed enabling law enforcement to an easier road to prosecuting organized crime now prevents law abiding institutions from encouraging like minded action?

Civil RICO

I don’t think this list thing is going to go very far for reason explained in #2. There aren’t many brokers brave enough to allow their agents to actually put inspectors on a printed piece of paper (evidence) much anymore. Brokers tired of getting sued + licensing.

A Law of Unintended Consequences

I have been banned from almost all Realtor list for so long, I forgot
that is matters anymore. It is one of my main selling points.

They have been doing (picking favorites) this anyway, in all fifty states,
and for so long, it is nothing new… (and they will never stop).

“There is life after Realtors”. :slight_smile: The fresh air up here is wonderful.

Think about this:

  • Are Judges allowed to be publically ranked, graded and criticized by lawyers, and "blackballed: in the process?

  • What other profession, being totally unqualified to do so, is so arrogant to critique another profession, one that they have no clue about?

  • What legislature goes along with such legal smears. Can you say “restraint of Trade”?

Where do these little pople get off criticizing that about which they no nothing about? Can plumbers slam electricians? Can siding contractors similarly criticize concrete contractors?

I am VERY SCARED to say this, but I believe that Jim has a point.

“Yes”, to all the above questions you pose. People grade others all the time…
But not all are dumb enough to tell the world and put it on an illegal list.

Didn’t some realtors in PA just publish a full page apology for joining
others in the some misleading slander and conspiracy against some hard working
home inspectors in their area?

The main MAR lobbyist, who was representing the C*ck fighting industry before, threatened in a MAR newsletter this last year to basically teach home inspectors a lesson is for realtors just to direct their clients to the phone book. I hope MAR gets mad enough to do this. MAR has no idea.

I think it’s time to teach MAR a lesson.

What’s a phone book? Oh yeah, those big old ugly books that people used to use when I was a boy. Do they still make those?

I would bet my life the same sort of unprofessional lifestyle some used house salesman use at their offices and branch offices is nothing new throughout the country.

Jim just happened to be lucky enough to actually see how some realtors will do just about anything to make that commission in his particular region.

And of course since the residential market is slow in some areas, the used house salesman are doing just about anything to make sure their deals don’t go sour…:twisted:

I see it alot.

Looks like they are doing more harm to themselves. This should not be hard. Just a slight push, all it is going to take.

I have personally experienced a leader of MAR stand in front of a large group discussing the home inspection bill and claimed that his brokerage office had no such home inspector referral list. He lied through his teeth because I saw the list with my own eyes years ago. His own office manger handed to me.

Jim,

This is not a “boycott” list. Boycotts are public actions that are intended not only to inform others of an unfair or potentially illegal action but also to gain sympathy and support for what is perceived as a just cause. If this is a valid letter then it amounts to a “Blackball” list (non-public, for the most part private list) which has been called illegal for many reasons and in many different ways.

Yes it is time for Inspectors to work at regaining at least some modicum of control over their own industry. However, “boycotting” one or just several agencies is a localized effort that, at best, puts pressure on just those agencies to comply with all laws, not just licensing laws. If this is a valid letter it would be, in my opinion, better just to file a complaint with the MO Attorney General and MAR/NAR and let the chips fall where they will. If nothing else, the news of the complaint will make it around to all MAR members and provide the remainder of them something to think about.

Missouri may be a bit different from other states when it comes to used house salesmen.

Our salesmen get elected and appointed to key positions in the legislature and take pretty good care of each other.

For example…the Missouri Real Estate Commission is the state agency appointed to govern used house salesmen. In this, their most recent newsletter of 27 pages, pages 15 through 27 (almost half of the publication) lists the recent disciplinary actions they took against salesmen.

Read about the salesmen arrested for selling drugs, writing bad checks, felony assault, and lying on their applications regarding their qualifications…and then read about their “probations”.

The industry is sick, in Missouri, and they are desperately trying to draw in the home inspector ---- the only party to the transaction who does not benefit from the sale of the house ---- under their control.

You guys might want to keep your plans to punish MAR a little quiter, else you can be accused of doing the same thing they are. It might hinder your efforts if you ever have to take legal action. JMO