Charlotte Area MLS (Orlando, Ocala, North Port: house, zip code, price)

[SoFLGal]

Here's the latest from Mr. Mike:

Dear Shannon,

I want to thank everyone… both those who opposed me and those who stood by me in this debate.

It’s been exhilarating. Expending yourself in a worthy cause bigger than yourself, is not draining it is energizing. Both sides fought passionately for what they felt was in the long term best interest of the association. Lively debate and the right to be heard is what America is all about.

Of course I hate to lose. In my opinion, anyone who doesn’t mind losing wouldn’t be worth much.

Apathy is everyone’s enemy.
Jack Hackett called this the most important vote he’d seen in 26 years. And I am proud of the 800 plus REALTORS® who took the time to vote. Apathy is our association’s, our county’s and our country’s biggest enemy. We put a huge dent in apathy and that is an accomplishment. (Now if we can work on that other 400 who didn’t vote.) I would ask every one to make a commitment to stay involved, be at meetings and be informed.

It is my sincere hope this experience serves as a springboard for our Board of Directors, Officers, Brokers and Agents to continue communicating and, from this point forward, work together as equals toward the common goal of creating a strong, sound Association that the membership loves with an MLS that serves it’s members.

If allowed to I will continue to serve on the Grievance and Ethics committee and encourage members to donate reasonable amounts of their time, natural gifts, talents and experience to contribute to the good of our Association.

Now that we’re talking let’s keep it talking. Lets make MFRMLS work for us. If there are fields we need, lets assure we get them. We may be only 1,250 agents in a group of 33,250 but we’ve seen that if we make enough noise, MFR moves Heaven and Earth to make us happy.

Lets have regular membership meetings and everybody SHOW UP. Not just when you’re mad but all the time.

I have made many friends from this. I intend to build and expand upon those friendships. A few enemies too but given a chance, I’ll hug them, make-up and help them all I can.

Yes, Realtors compete but we DO need each other and we really are a great bunch of people. Imagine now if we take this same energy and use it to drive our real estate market into a turn around.

Monday, I will whole-heartedly support the will of the majority. But now what I’m going to do is take my wife and kids to Disney World.

Sincerely,
Mr. Mike

About The Band of REALTORS® The consensus of the group is to stay together and work side by side with the board and our fellow members to move forward in a positive direction.

[Carbondated]

I find it very very interesting that the Sarasota Herald Tribune (the propaganda rag for the real estate industry in our area) devoted its cover of the Business Week section with the story of a new MLS type of listing website.

HeraldTribune.com - Business - Business news stories about Sarasota, Manatee and Charlotte counties in Florida. - HeraldTribune.com

Wow...it is so different from Realtor.com and Zillow. You can actually search by a zip code or town name. <----sarcasm

Thanks for posting the response to my question SoFLGal.

I believe I got my answer. A map search capability is the best they can come up with, huh? Can't come up with a search engine for a subdivision? Yeah, right.

Local realtors have lost my business, because they are the ones who decided to go with MFRMLS and all it entails.

There will be more revenue lost by the local Realtors Associations and their members. The public is not as stupid as realtors would like to believe.

[Carbondated]

BTW... are the local Realtors Associations banding together to try to get rid of the public access to recent sales of houses on the Property Appraisers website? That would be the next step....

First, lets make sure only we (the realtors) have all the information, and where all the houses are for sale. Then lets make sure the public doesn't find out what houses are selling for in that area.

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Carbondated

BTW... are the local Realtors Associations banding together to try to get rid of the public access to recent sales of houses on the Property Appraisers website? That would be the next step....

First, lets make sure only we (the realtors) have all the information, and where all the houses are for sale. Then lets make sure the public doesn't find out what houses are selling for in that area.

I don't think the local Realtors would be able to make the recent sales private. Recent sales are public knowledge. I think that an informed buyer is a good buyer, part of being informed is having knowledge of the recent sales in the area. Why everything has to be so hush, hush is beyond me. I think the public should have as much info as they want, hence the public MLS system.

Carbondated-I must have missed something, where did you find that information? Newspaper article, post?

[Carbondated]

I don't have any knowledge of any plans for Realtors to try and limit public home sale information on the Property Appraisers website. However, with all this hush hush funny business that has been going on recently by the local Realtor Associations, it wouldn't be that big of a stretch of the imagination.

Oh, I tried out the new public MLS search engine touted by the Sarasota Herald Tribune. A 5 year old could make a better search engine. Just more crap....

SoFLGal, off topic but...is there any update Venice Area Association of Realtors still being investigated/audited by the IRS? It was mentioned, briefly, in the paper.

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Carbondated

I don't have any knowledge of any plans for Realtors to try and limit public home sale information on the Property Appraisers website. However, with all this hush hush funny business that has been going on recently by the local Realtor Associations, it wouldn't be that big of a stretch of the imagination.

Oh, I tried out the new public MLS search engine touted by the Sarasota Herald Tribune. A 5 year old could make a better search engine. Just more crap....

SoFLGal, off topic but...is there any update Venice Area Association of Realtors still being investigated/audited by the IRS? It was mentioned, briefly, in the paper.

Carbondated-I didn't catch that story and I haven't heard any of the Realtors talking about it. Then again, most of the PG-PC-NP Realtors weren't members of the Venice board. I am assuming it was in The Herald. I usually read The Sun, so I probably missed the story. I actually have three newspapers bundled up on my counter right now-no time to read them. Once in a while I'll catch something in the Herald if someone emails it to me or I catch a link to it up on a message board.

[CraftLadyKim]

You can always search through Realtor.com

[Carbondated]

Originally Posted by CraftLadyKim

You can always search through Realtor.com

LOL I see realtors have not lost their sense of humor.
Have you heard this joke....Whats the difference between a used car salesman and a realtor?

[SoFLGal]

Originally Posted by Carbondated

LOL I see realtors have not lost their sense of humor.
Have you heard this joke....Whats the difference between a used car salesman and a realtor?

Easy there-carbondated, I hope you're not lumping me in that group

I would have to agree with you though, Realtor.com is pretty much of a joke!

[runswithscissors]

Well I don't know what's going on, but it's real easy for us dopes in the public to tie up SEVERAL realtors at once. Like a little competition. Have 20 of them working all at once and then use someone totally different for the sale LOL. I mean if you don't want us to do our own screening, fine. I have all day (unlike others) to let you guys drive me around. Problem is, since last year I haven't exactly found 20 realtors willing to do anything more than email me their custom mls dump that hasn't been screened by them for any sort of accuracy at all. And manipulated to favor what the realtor wants to sell.

Requirement: screened porch in 33308
MLS dump: 180 properties with balconies (no screened porches) in a whole different town not even close to 33308 but hey, it happens to be in the realtor's neighborhood

HRMPH