Posted on 11/30/2020 7:23:10 AM PST by SJackson
Say the wrong thing on Facebook and lose your license and your business.
Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is an investigative journalist and writer focusing on the radical Left and Islamic terrorism.
The National Association of Realtors claims to have 1.4 million members. There will be fewer members before long as the association begins purging conservative real estate agents.
At the center of the storm was an addition to Article 10 which covers various forms of discrimination. But unlike all the previous sections which addressed how real estate professionals interacted with customers, Article 10-5 is catchall cancel culture that controls what real estate agents say on social media on their own private accounts and in their free time.
This goes far beyond being made to bake a cake. Even if you’re at home and you post something opposed to gay marriage or illegal migration, you can lose your business.
As the NAR claims, a realtor's "speech and conduct reflect on the REALTOR® organization whether said publicly on a business social media profile, or privately on a personal one."
When you’re a real estate agent, you no longer have the right to personal opinions.
Article 10-5 immediately transformed 1.4 million people into subordinates at the mercy of NAR brass who have the authority to determine what political or religious views they can hold.
"It means that we never take our hands off, no matter where we are, no matter what we do, we are always licensed and we are always a member of the National Association of Realtors,” New York State Association of Realtors President Jennifer Stevenson warned.
Never taking your “hands off” is endemic to socialist tyrannies and has no place in America.
Jennifer is a Democrat donor. The NAR’s PAC directs a majority of its cash to Democrats. That included $3,000 to subsidize the bigotry of Rep. Ilhan Omar and $5,000 to Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
But that’s the kind of hatred that the National Association of Realtors is comfortable subsidizing.
“No matter where we are,” means never being able to say anything that offends someone like Jennifer without fear of being sanctioned, fired, or losing your business. Jennifer, an NAR board member, and others will be looking over your shoulder every time you post anything on Facebook. Any leftist offended by anything an NAR member posts has an easy recourse.
"Doesn’t this mean that if I post my opinion online and someone doesn’t agree with it, that I can lose my membership and be forced out of the business?" the NAR FAQ asks.
The answer is yes. Anyone can bring an “ethics” complaint which will lead to a “hearing” with “witnesses” and “counsel”. Posting that illegal migration is wrong or that Islamic terrorism is a threat can now lead to a real estate agent facing a hearing. And if they lose that hearing, then not only will they be expelled from the NAR, but the state real estate licensing authority will be told that the agent violated the "public trust" which can lead to the loss of their license.
Say the wrong thing on Facebook and lose your license, your business, and your livelihood.
The NAR is wrongly characterizing personal views that are privately expressed as “discriminating”, treating it as a violation of “ethics” in a commercial enterprise, and then reporting it to state licensing authorities as a violation of the “public trust”.
This is cancel culture on a national level by one of the country’s most abusive organizations which had already been sued by the Department of Justice for multiple antitrust violations.
What constitutes saying the wrong thing?
Article 10-5 bans “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”
In an era when supporting President Trump is considered “hate speech”, how are these terms going to be defined? Exhibit 2 of Appendix XIII to Part Four of Article 10-5 of the NAR has an easy answer. Everything that some leftist doesn’t like now violates the NAR’s rules.
Hate speech is any speech that is "intended to insult, offend" because of "some trait". Any remarks that can be seen as "disparaging" or "shaming", or can be characterized as a form of "innuendo", about a protected group is covered under "epithets". That would cover the use of the term “illegal alien”, any discussion about Islamic terrorism, or transgender compulsion.
Harassment, for example, includes "inappropriate conduct, comment, display, action, or gesture based on another person’s sex, color, race, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and any other protected characteristic." And that in turn includes, "negative stereotyping" and "the display or circulation of written or graphic material that denigrates or shows hostility toward an individual or group."
That would, as a practical matter, include the Bible. And certainly particular Bible verses.
The National Association of Realtors has, for all intents and purposes, made quoting Bible verses on a private Facebook profile into an ethical violation leading to a hearing and expulsion.
The NAR board falsely claimed that these speech codes stem from fair housing legal obligations. They do not. Worse still, the NAR’s insistence that, “disparaging a particular protected class is evidence of one’s inability to treat them equally” is a troubling argument that would bar traditional Christians and Jews from membership in the National Association of Realtors. Likewise, Americans who oppose illegal migration, would also be banned.
Article 10-5 claims to be fighting discrimination, but is actually licensing discrimination against 200 million Americans, a much larger class than the ones the NAR claims to be protecting.
The NAR argues that, “bias against protected classes revealed through the public posting of hate speech could result in REALTORS® not taking clients from certain protected classes or not treating them equally, which would lead to violations of the Fair Housing Act.” What this really means is that real estate agents are being sanctioned for discrimination that never actually took place while assuming, for example, that because a traditional Christian or Jew opposes gay marriage that they would be presumed to discriminate against gay or lesbian customers.
Barring traditional religious people from a profession because they are presumed to biased is a bias and a much more egregious form of discrimination than the one it claims to be remedying.
The National Association of Realtors is imposing a political and religious test on members. It has moved the bar from policing interactions with customers to policing personal beliefs.
This is fundamentally un-American. Article 10-5 is McCarthyism wrapped in buzzwords.
Around the same time that the NAR was rolling out its speech codes, the Justice Department sued the group for multiple antitrust violations accusing it of anti-competitive behavior.
This isn’t the first time that the NAR has been sued over antitrust violations, but it should lead to action, if not at a federal level, then at a state level. In some states, not being a member of the NAR makes being a real estate agent all but impossible. In many, it makes it difficult.
As a socialist oligarchy squeezes conservatives out of public life, elected officials should fight back before it’s too late against the powerful institutions which have taken over American life. These institutions, financial, academic, corporate, and trade associations are engaging in a sustained campaign of political and religious suppression under the guise of fighting against discrimination. This campaign is the greatest form of discrimination in America in generations.
The only way to stop the squeeze is to squeeze the squeezers. If there’s no room for conservatives in the NAR, there should be no room for the NAR in conservative states.
The America-hating left is closing in for the final blow. Their intention is to eliminate conservatives, after taking all their money.
Step 1: prevent conservatives from getting a job.
In my deep blue state the paperwork to sell a house is ridiculous. Contract after agreement after acknowledgement after disclosure after .... you get the idea. Far from a simple process like selling a car is. Could you do it without a realtor? Sure. Is it easy? No way.
It never pays to step on toes needlessly.
My brother’s wife shared his opinions.
Chuckling
If things get hot, listing houses via agents will become unfashionable.
The Left claims that it is not intolerance, but a duty, to not tolerate the intolerable...and they get to define 'intolerable.' Typical Leftist doublespeak.
Seems like a perfect time for another group to get started.
Good luck...you may want a real estate attorney on retainer...could save you a lot of headaches.
“An agent/broker can conduct business without having the Realtor designation.”
That is true. But, the problem with that...many territorial real estate broker “Boards” require NAR membership. And the Board generally owns the MLS. So, no NAR membership means no MLS membership.
But, as someone mentioned above, there are many websites, like Zillow, that allow owners to advertise their own homes. While an MLS is still a closed/membership system, it’s no longer THE ONLY system to sell real estate. That’s a good thing.
There’s a local broker that’s very conservative, even ran for a local office. She’s very vocal. She’ll probably quickly run afoul of the new Nazi Association of Realtor rules. But she’ll sue the pants off of them. Should I ever need a full service broker...I’m hiring her.
There were no realtors in Shakespeare’s day.
Most slither on their bellies like snakes and lawyers do.
See how far you get with “For Sale by Owner” in their monopoly world.
Realtors should have been rendered obsolete by a Service like Zillow by now. I have bought two properties without “benefit” of a realtor, not a problem one. I have yet to sell one though.
As always and forever; leftists ruin everything they touch.
They are truly the most toxic and longest lasting pandemic to hit the human population on earth.
Enforced by corporations. The new corporatist state, where public policy is pursued by organizations outside the legislative process.
The biggest joke of all if you do not need a realtor to sell of buy a home. I did it twice and had no issues at all. This is another industry that has the general public fooled.
Save for the thieves casing your house, how effective do you think the realtor is at screening? When we sold a house four years ago I interviewed realtors. Two out of the the four I felt were not trustworthy and a third was unprofessional if not incompetent.
Big money in realestate taking 6% out of every transaction for what little work they do. It is a racket. Anybody should be able to do what you do. You should even be able to require an application to buy so long as you don’t discriminate on race, color or creed and just financial qualification? Pre-qualification is so common now you should be able to stipulate that as a requisite to show. Deposit amount? Enough to hurt if they lose it. Most sane people are not in the habit of writing a contract on something they can’t buy but there are tire kickers who try to look at houses as a recreational activity and bring their kids with them.
When there was a showing I always asked about the client. Two tire kickers got through by the same agent and I told her via the agent I hired she could not show the house any more. I wanted to sell the house but I did not have to and I made that clear. It is the agents who have a key to the lock box you need to worry about. They leave the lights on, doors open etc.
Try screening to rent.
Bull.
I have never sold a house while allowing free access. Allowing a lock box is a choice and I have never allowed it. The houses sold just the same.
If you get an attorney it will cost you a fraction of what a realtor will cost and it can be a flat fee. I use the title company attorney.
We need more people like you to speak up.
I’d like to see the real estate racket’s back broken.
Well the head of the realtors here in the Raleigh area just sold my 2nd home in 3 days and quite a Profit so if they want to cancel me they can go right ahead now:-)
The original part of the house was built in 1900 and it had a series of additions and remodels mostly by amateurs. My goal was to get it back to its original glory and get all the pieces to flow better. The house is approximately 4000 sq. ft. in total which is one of the reasons why it took so long. Every room needed to be almost completely redone. Today, hopefully I will finish sanding the original wood floor from 1900 in the living room. It will not be perfect, but it will be beautiful. I am proud of what we accomplished and sad to let it go, but we have run up against harsh economic reality and it is time for us to move on.
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