Mile L'Chaim

2009-09-30T18:50:00.000-07:00

Mile L'Chaim: How Denver's small Orthodox community plans to get a lot bigger

For Orthodox Jews, anyplace outside New York City is known as "out of town." And anyplace not touching the Atlantic Ocean — like say, a square state surrounded by other square states in the middle of the country — is considered way, way out of town. "In New York, once you go west of Pennsylvania, they think there are still cowboys and Indians, that it's the Wild West," says Scott Friedman, an Orthodox Jew who grew up in Denver. Read More

Scott Friedman
Broker Associate
Herman Group

Contact me at:
303-908-9974

Colorado Real Estate
360 S. Monroe Street Suite 501
Denver, CO 80246

Denver Real Estate: Scott Friedman Light House Team

2008-07-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

Contributed by Scott Friedman, Realtor®

We have all heard the media reports about how the sky is falling. Every other house is foreclosing and values are a mere fraction of what they were just a few years ago. And if that is not enough, your home will be covered by water within 10 years due to global warming. So the question is, why would anyone want to buy property in Denver, Colorado at a time like this?

Read the full story

Scott Friedman
Broker Associate
Prudential

Contact me at:
303-908-9974
email:scott@lighthouseteam.com

Colorado Real Estate

5250 Leetsdale Dr. # 101
Denver, CO 80246

Also see: Featured Homes / Lowry Homes

http://www.lighthouseteam.com

National Association of Realtors

2007-08-09T17:26:00.000-07:00

National Association of Realtors

The NAR building and the U.S. Capitol in the background.The National Association of Realtors (NAR), whose members are known as Realtors, is North America's largest trade association representing over 1 million members (as reported in 2006), including NAR's institutes, societies, and councils, involved in all aspects of the residential and commercial real estate industries. NAR also functions as a Self Regulatory Organization for real estate brokerage. In the UK the equivelant is the NAEA.

The National Association of Realtors was founded on May 12th, 1908 as the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges, the founding group being located in Chicago, Illinois. In 1916, the National Association of Real Estate Exchanges changed its name to The National Association of Real Estate Boards. The current name was adopted in 1974.

NAR's membership is composed of residential and commercial real estate brokers, real estate salespeople, immovable property managers, appraisers, counselors, and others engaged in all aspects of the real estate (immovable property) industry, where a state license to practice is required. Members belong to one or more of some 1,600 local Associations of Realtors and Boards of Realtors in the 54 state and territory Associations of Realtors. They are pledged to a code of ethics and Standards of Practice, which includes duties to clients, the public, and other Realtors.

Word as colloquialism

Realtor is frequently used as a colloquialism in many countries to describe any person or company involved in the real estate trade, regardless of their NAR status or American residence. However, the word REALTOR (which the NAR prefers rendered in all caps) is a registered trade mark owned by the National Association of Realtors, and, if maintained, cannot be used in commerce by other parties in a way that is likely to cause confusion as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of goods, services, or commercial activities. The NAR authorizes usage by National Association of Realtors members or licensees. See also genericized trademark.

NAR and Multiple Listing Service (MLS) systems

The MLSs are to residential real estate what NASDAQ and the New York Stock Exchange are to securities, and NAR governs the hundreds of local Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) which are the information exchanges used across the nation by real estate brokers. (However, there are many MLSs that are independent of NAR, although membership is typically limited to licensed brokers and their agents; MLSPIN is an example of one of the larger independent MLSs in North America).

Through a complicated arrangement, NAR sets the policies for most of the Multiple Listings Services and, in the late 1990s with the growth of the internet, NAR evolved regulations allowing Information Data Exchanges ((IDX)) whereby brokers would allow a portion of their data to be seen on the internet via brokers' or agents' websites and Virtual Office Websites (VOW) which required potential buyers to register to obtain information.

These policies allowed "Participants" (whether they were individual one-man brokers or large regional companies) to limit access to some or all of the MLS data by individual brokers (whether they were brokers operating solely on the internet or local competitors). In 2005, this prompted the Department of Justice to file an antitrust lawsuit against NAR alleging its MLS rules in regard to these types of limitations on the display of data were the product of a conspiracy to restrain trade by excluding brokers who used the internet to operate differently from traditional "brick and mortar" brokers. For a description of the DOJ action, see Antitrust Case filings for US v. National Association of Realtors. Action is pending.

In response, NAR has proposed setting up a single Internet Listing Display system which will not allow Participants to exclude individual brokers (whether of a "bricks and morter" type or solely internet-based) but require a blanket opting out of display on all other brokers' sites.

NAR educational requirements and designations

For NAR's Code of Ethics education requirements and significant designations sponsored by the organization, see Real estate broker article on education.

Contributions to political campaigns

The NAR wields substantial power as a lobbying organization on behalf of agents and brokers; in 2005, NAR had the largest Political Action Committee in the United States. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, the Association is the United States' third-largest donor to political campaigns, having given since 1990 more than US$ 30 million. Of this sum, an average of 47% has gone to Democratic and and 53% to Republican recipients.[5] Key political issues for the group revolve around federal regulation of the financial services industry.

See also

Real estate broker
David Lereah (chief economist of the US National Association of Realtors)
Real estate trends
Estate agent (United Kingdom)
List of real estate topics
United States housing bubble

Jewish Realtors

Mile L'Chaim

Denver Real Estate: Scott Friedman Light House Team

National Association of Realtors