NAR's Changes to Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice

I am on the Texas (TAR) Professional Standards Committee and I was just emailed the changes that were adopted for 2008 from NAR, and I kinda chuckled. I'm not sure if others have read the changes, but this really caught my eye.

Article 12 used to say, "REALTORS® shall be careful at all times to present a true picture in their advertising and representations to the public..."

The revised Article says, "REALTORS® shall be honest and truthful in their real estate communications and shall present a true picture in their advetising, marketing, and other representations..."

What caught your eye? What caught my eye is what should have caught your eye too since I bolded the words, that we went from having to be "careful" to having to be "honest and truthful". When I see that, it shows that there were so many REALTORS® not being "careful" and they had to actually be told to be "honest and truthful." How sad is that.

I would think the two went hand in hand. If you're not being honest and truthful, you're definitely not being careful. And if you're being careful about not being caught being honest and truthful, then you're not very ethical which blows the entire Code of Ethics out of the water.

What do others think about this change, and have you witnessed reasons for this change? I would love to hear about your experiences with other agents who violated the original article making a need to change the verbiage (no names are needed in case they are members of this forum).

Dallas Sales Prices Up... But Are They??

According to the latest information from NAR, the DFW area has had a 1.7% increase in sales prices over last year with the rest of the nation having a 1.5% DECLINE... Does the 1.7% increase give a true an honest look of what's going on in the area? Maybe not...

Since the subprime market made their changes, it knocked a lot of lower-end home buyers out of the market. With that, the under $150k price range has been harder to sell. However, sales of the higher priced homes are holding steady and are fairly strong.

Then, you take the higher priced homes and add those to the lesser sales in the lower prices, which used to be the bread and butter, and it creates an increase in sales prices (up to $156,500), though it's not a complete and true story.
Overall, in Texas, not just DFW, sales were down 1.3% in the second quarter. When you compare that to the rest of the country, they were down on average of 10.8%. What a huge difference! No wonder we're still getting so many people relocating here.

Remember, I work all of North Dallas County and Collin County including Richardson, Plano, Allen, Frisco, Carrollton, Garland, Rowlett, McKinney, etc... my car will take us anywhere you need to go!!

ARE YOU PACKED YET?!

NAR Heading South of the Border

NAR has headed south of the border into Mexico, and as of January 2007, all Mexicans that are members of AMPI (La Asociacion Mexicana de Profesionales Inmobiliarios) will be considered REALTORS®.

This is the first joint relationship that NAR as formally signed with a foreign real estate organization. The have been ongoing liaisons over the years, but this is a much larger step in bringing REALTORS® together.

NAR announced at the convention in New Orleans that they will launch a 4-hour course called "Doing Business In Mexico" with an online version available later in 2007.

Is this a start of NAR actually becoming a "National" Association of Realtors and not just considered National as in Nationwide over America?

Does anyone have any thoughts on this relationship? Do you see yourself or your investors buying properties in Mexico and this being an important relationship? How do you see this relationship being of benefit for your business? Being in Texas, I would like to hear other's thoughts.