When the United States Government sued the National Association of Realtors (NAR) for a number of anti-competitive, anti-consumer policies, they reached a settlement. As part of that settlement, NAR agreed to provide all of the listing information to customers.

Unfortunately, NAR is not complying with this statement.

They put two very difficult road blocks in place. These road blocks stop most Realtor Websites from showing anything other than Active listings.

In order for consumers to see all listings, they are forced to sign up with the Realtor/Website, otherwise they can only view Active listings.

What was NAR thinking? Did someone at NAR say “We can’t let consumers know what their home is worth, they should be forced to work with a Realtor to get that information.”

The 2nd road block is their fee. Many local Board of Realtors will charge a lot more to download all the listings. I have seen it be as much as 9 times more expensive to download all listings.

What are they worried about? Why not allow consumers to find some comparable sales and feel better about what to offer on a home or how much to sell their home for? It does not mean they will not use a Realtor to buy or sell that home.

So I want NAR to allow consumers to see all listings without forcing them to start a relationship with a Realtor by signing up on their Website.

I also want NAR to charge just one reasonable fee to Realtors to download all listings, not just Active listings.

NAR, stop hiding critical listings that consumers need to make good decisions for the largest financial transaction in their life.