As soon as I get around to it, I'm going to drop my Realtor membership. I see no benefit, and most of the time we're not on the same page with what we believe (me vs NAR). How I wish we could redo the whole real estate industry. Fees, fees, fees. I know there's a cost to doing business, but the cost/benefit ratio doesn't make sense when it comes to NAR AND the MLS's.

Got my new dues for 2010 in the mail. Found out the following:

Yes, I can drop my membership from NAR and still be a member of my local MLS. HOWEVER, the monthly fees are almost double. Well, so much for dropping NAR. I'd drop them if it made economical sense. I do continuing education on my own free will, as I'm a big fan of education and self improvement. I also have a much higher ethical standard than that, in my opinion, low standard set by the Realtor code of ethics.

Anyway, just wanted to follow up on my attempt to drop NAR.

Here our MLS is controled by our local board- so if we want to use the MLS we don't have a choice- as was stated earlier in the post. However, we have a lot of people in the state who just want to keep their license active to be able to legally collect referral fees; they have no use for the MLS. So we have a seperate company set up, ran by a retired broker, that is not a Realtor member for those people to hang their licenses. It works out great for them.

MLS is not an independent advertising and information database. It is paid for, governed by, and maintained by members only. Benefits should go to members only. If enough members of the MLS decide that memberships in NAR and the state association are not mandatory, that requirement can be changed. It may not be likely, but the ability for the group to make such a decision is there.

I am an NAR member, and I probably would be even if membership were not required by the local MLS. I belonged to professional organizations in my former gig, also. Access to online forms is one of the benefits. And, believe it or not, individual members can have impact on the local organization. Most members would be surprized at how effective they can be when they start contacting board members, committee members, and then actually get involved.

Mark,

Which MLS's do you use??

I am mainly Metro Atlanta and use GAMLS,FMLS. I do not pay any extra for anything. These companies could care less about NAR and just want the money.

Now I have seen some other tiny mls's pop up in small areas that are tied to a board but not in my core area.

That blows if you are in one of those areas.Just shows with those mls's if they do that HOW WEAK their services are that they have to blackmail you to stay a REALTOR.

I am more proud of my principal broker designation as I had to work hard for it.

I mean by Metro Atlanta the 20 plus counties.

Wow Mark I checked and Augusta is right on the state line almost in Carolina.

Hmm, I'm a little bothered that you choose to call yourself "super REALTOR" if this is the case. Maybe "super broker" would be a better moniker given the situation....

I was a Realtor at the time I created the name on the forum. I don't use REALTOR anywhere else so I keep the name on here.

Everyone knows me on here by this name so I have no interest in changing it.

Super, been slammed the past couple of days. I am a member of GAAR. Yeah, Augusta is right on the state line and with the reciprocity agreement with South Carolina, all we have to do is fill out some paperwork and pay some fees, and we are licensed in SC as well (no additional tests).

Actually, North Augusta (that's a city name) is in South Carolina, while every other part of Augusta is in Georgia. What stinks is that Aiken SC (the county that North Augusta is in) has their own mls and if we want to show homes in Aiken county that are strictly in the Aiken mls, we've got to join that board too! That's not to say I can't list homes in SC, as I should, since our mls is bigger (significantly more listings) and most of the Aiken homes are listed in in the Augusta mls instead of Aiken mls (go figure).

I have heard that Aiken realtors don't take kindly to Augusta GA Realtors' listings which are in Aiken county. I can't stand that kind of childishness. I could care less what Realtor/non Realtor member of this mls or member of that mls brings me a buyer as long as we work together to get homes sold.

What I really hate is the blackmailing to force us to stay members of NAR. I don't like NAR, and I don't want to be a member, but I certainly am not about to pay almost double fees to prove a point.

When I first got licensed, I used to be proud to be a member Realtor. Sad to say, after I got to meet many Realtors, and after I saw enough of how things operate, I don't want to associate with that association anymore.