National Association of Realtors

I had a very disturbing experience with Missoula Organization of Realtors (MOR), one of the National Association of Realtors’ (NAR) state associations. I felt tricked and was unfairly influenced to enter into an expensive and predatory legally-binding agreement with one of their affiliates, Mary H, after discovering that her business had received an overwhelming number of non-consumer five-star ratings and reviews on Google and Yelp from her industry colleagues, friends, and family members - apparently, none of whom were ever actually consumers of her business. This in part is due to Mary H's participation in a scam with others affiliated with the National Association of Realtors - her industry colleagues - where she is shown to have reciprocated by publishing her own non-consumer five-star ratings and reviews back to their business profiles from her personal Facebook, Google, and Yelp accounts. The NAR scam is a collaborative effort with an obvious mutual incentive to produce artificially boosted overall consumer ratings, which creates an unfair advantage for the participants' businesses over their local and more trustworthy competitors, and causes undue interference by presenting a false perception to consumers who attempt to assess their true standing within the community. Part of the evidence I obtained is video footage of Brad L, another affiliate of NAR, when he vehemently solicited online Google and Yelp reviews while offering to reciprocate as part of his presentation to an auditorium full of his industry colleagues during a broker's retreat in Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the non-consumer five-star ratings and reviews received by Mary H's business were also advertised on her website where the reviewers were falsely identified as actual "clients and customers." Most of the non-consumer reviews appear vague in an attempt to further disguise the reviewers as legitimate consumers of her business. As a result, I was given a deliberate false sense of Mary H's credibility. Mary H also mishandled private financial information of mine by disclosing my savings account balance to a representative of an organization unknown to her at the time, unprovoked and without my consent. Allegedly, she and her husband also vehemently pressured the same representative to provide information, in which they were denied and repeatedly informed was HIPAA protected (highly sensitive medical information.) Furthermore, I discovered that Mary H double-bills tenants and property owners for identical services as part of her standard business practice, which to my understanding is consumer fraud. When I finally attempted to terminate my lease per the agreed upon terms, Mary H threatened me with an unconscionable list of fees claiming it was an early termination - but it was not. I shared all of my findings with MOR during a grievance hearing. Yet, despite the evidence, they dismissed the case without any repercussions to their affiliate based on frivolous technicalities and oversights. For example, NAR's Standards of Practice state, "When serving a tenant in a non-agency capacity, Realtors remain obligated to treat all parties honestly"; yet, MOR still dismissed the case citing that Mary H did not represent me in an agent capacity. MOR acknowledged that Mary H did in fact offer testimonials from non-clients while identifying them as actual clients; yet, they still dismissed the case because the non-consumer five-star ratings and reviews were removed from Mary H's website on the day of the hearing. Even still, they remain on Google for Mary H's business. It ultimately fell onto MOR to take appropriate action, but they failed to do so by not reprimanding one of their own. After the hearing, I was eventually offered the opportunity to pay MOR $500 to appeal their decision - I declined to do so.

The association is amazing . They have a hide library with unlimited resources for there members they provide more tools fail and have many way of communicating with there members. If you want to or do own real estate or at a REALTOR they are behind you 110 %.

A great organization full of smart and creative people. CRT Labs is a must visit if you have the chance!

Great organizer for the interests of Realtors all Over the country.

Great training