Broker: Get politicians off the auction block
Letter to the Editor
By Glenn Roberts Jr., Tuesday, March 29, 2011.Re: 'NAR floats $40 dues hike for political campaigns' (March 22)
Dear Editor:
I am not a lawyer but have been in real estate for over 30 years. I believe that forced donations to a political action committee are illegal. I have attended many political functions where the best and most expensive food and drink items are freely given to try to persuade a particular group to see things their way.
Lobbyists make more money than the politicians or most real estate professionals. So far as the money spent to save Fannie and Freddie, it appears that their future is questionable. Plus, these powerful entities that all this money gets thrown at are a large part of why real estate is in the bottom of the barrel and brought the rest of the economy with it.
I don't want to be forced to pay additional dues to fund politicians or causes that in most cases I don't have input on. Many of those same politicians voted on "Obamacare," Wall Street bailouts and many other things I won't elaborate on. Let agents and brokers pick who they want, invest in what they believe, and not waste more millions on politics. Our whole system is wrong when the candidate with the most money has the best chance.
Wake up, America and the real estate industry. We need to get our country and our industry off the auction block. Give us the real issues and real answers proposed. Get your hands out of our pockets and let the slipping but sincere people still in the real estate business have real input to the answers! Thanks.
David J. Moose, associate broker
Smithfield, Va.
Long & Foster Cos.
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Submitted by Courtney Buie on March 30, 2011 - 3:55pm.
I agree. I think this initiative by NAR is taking our industry backward, not forward.
Submitted by Ruthmarie Hicks on March 31, 2011 - 7:44am.
The reality is that you pay or you lose. I'm not saying that its right - I'm just saying that it is.
I'm all for taking America back for the people. When a company like GE can make enormous profits and not pay a dime in taxes you know that the system is fixed. However, I chose to fight the good fight - but make sure I have a seat at the table until substantive change can take place. Hypocritical? Absolutely. But that's the reality of our times.
Submitted by Bruno Skopinich on April 3, 2011 - 9:25am.
I agree with Ruthmarie, until we are able change the system. We need to keep a place at the table, or we could be severely hurt... as it is currently being done to the mortgage broker industry.
Submitted by Steve Gillespie on April 3, 2011 - 6:28pm.
You can have a better seat at the table by mustering votes.
But this boondoggle is about how to hand out the $37M like free candy.
Can anyone tell me how much it will cost to administer that much candy? Who gets to decide who? From what exotic island paradise will these lucky “vettors” objectively pick the “vettees”? What objective or scientific basis is there for handing out the candy?
Wow, I would love to be on that advisory (travel/adventure) ‘vetting’ committee if I had the time, good luggage, and didn’t have to make a living.
What a joke.
If you take my forty bucks, have fun. I just won’t treat my kids to pizza one night.