Hi! My name is Pandora. Wanna see my box?

November 20, 2006 |

Sellsius posted an interesting change to the REALTOR Code of Ethics that will go into effect 01/01/07.  It has to do with a REALTOR’s responsibility to present an accurate picture in all of his advertising.  The change is an apparent attempt to deal with the intricacies of internet advertising.

With just a cursory reading of the new requirements, it seems to me like it is far too ambiguous to do any real good at all.  When a rule such as this hinges upon “misleading” conduct, it might be good to define what “misleading” means.  I can think of all kinds of problems with interpreting this requirement.  Internet advertising isn’t quite as simple as print advertising.  Meta tags and keywords don’t have quite the same effect as the old “bait and switch.”

It seems to me that this rule could lead to a whole lot of confusion and frustration amongst REALTORS.  I can only hope that NAR and the local associations of REALTORS are prepared to interpret such a broad regulation in some way that both makes sense and can be practically implemented.
I won’t be holding my breath. . .

[tags] real estate, realtor, charlottesville, virginia, NAR, ethics [/tags]

Posted by Daniel | Filed Under Industry Issues 

Comments

2 Responses to “Hi! My name is Pandora. Wanna see my box?”

  1. teresa boardman on November 20th, 2006 6:07 pm

    My concern about this is ‘misleading’ can be subjective. I may be mislead by an ad, and someone else may not be. I wish they would use the words truthful or accurate, or anything but misleading.

    [Reply]

  2. jf.sellsius on November 21st, 2006 3:56 am

    Very good point Daniel. Misleading is a legal term and subject to interpretation based on the impression on consumers—very subjective. I agree with teresa that truthful or accurate is a much easier standard. That’s what happens when you let lawyers near the Code.

    [Reply]

Got something to say?





Creative Commons License