My letter to NAR regarding their errors in reporting sales numbers

Mailed yesterday:

December 21, 2011

Attn: Moe Veissi and NAR Leadership

National Association of Realtors

430 N. Michigan Ave

Chicago, IL 60611

Moe and NAR leaders;

The REALTOR® image has taken another hard hit this week thanks to the erroneous reporting of the National Association of REALTORS® over the course of 2007 through most of 2011.  The news of this error has left me frustrated and upset with NAR.  While this news does not necessarily have an impact on future of real estate sales and trends it does have a major impact on the reputable image that is being a REALTOR®.  The long standing benefit of having our trade association report data has been that of an almost neutral party reporting just the facts of the housing market.

The modern real estate consumer will take note of this large error as it presumably will receive more press over the next few weeks.  This news will further erode the public’s perception on the reliability of our data reporting and will send consumers to alternate third parties such as Zillow and Trulia who will only stand to benefit from this error.  Local and state associations do not report data with nearly the same level of sophistication that NAR does, however this news will leave the consumer second-guessing many local association reports as well.

To move forward and retain credibility I believe that NAR must consider outsourcing its data reporting to a neutral party to complete their statistical reports from the MLS.  I see this is as the only way the combined local and regional MLS data can be used and regain credibility from the public as a whole.

Sincerely,

Brint Wahlberg