The National Association of Realtors’s Board of Directors, meeting in San Francisco on the final day of the 2003 Realtors Conference & Expo, passed a six-month extension to the deadline for MLSs to implement the virtual office Web site (VOW) policy passed earlier this year by NAR. The new deadline for implementing the policy, which regulates the presentation of brokers’ listings on other brokers’ virtual offices, is July 1, 2004. The change will allow MLSs more time to implement the policy.
With new business models such as VOWs and online referral services entering the picture, the directors voted to make available a brochure on how sales associates can avoid conduct that could be seen as suppressing competition in the market or falsely disparaging a competitor’s business practices. The brochure, which will cover both the legal and ethical issues sales associates should be aware of, will be available shortly at realtor.org under Law & Policy.
The Board also passed a policy declaring support for federal government efforts to curb fraudulent, misleading, and abusive unsolicited e-mail but with a caution that such efforts shouldn’t impede businesses’ ability to conduct legitimate business via e-mail and should be sensitive to the impact such curbs could have on small businesses.
Directors renewed NAR’s professional liability insurance with AIG for the 2004 policy year at $2.8 million and allocated at least $162,000 for legal cases, including cases involving MLS antitrust in California, insurance premium calculation in New York, and wetlands jurisdiction in Maryland.
In other actions, the board:
• Supported a policy that NAR work with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to make the agency’s appraisal roster system more efficient. The policy specifies that appraisal assignments should be completed in five to seven days and calls for the creation of nationwide accountability standards for VA appraisers and uniform enforcement of those standards.
• Approved a policy that recommends the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development begin reporting loan activity to Congress on a weekly basis once the department reaches 75 percent of its commitment authority. The reports will give Congress time to authorize increases in that authority to ensure continued operation of FHA mortgage programs.
• Approved new bilateral agreements with Finland, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Honduras.