Big Brother Comes To Real Estate

     One would expect a professional guild to expect their members to adhere to professional guidelines as they exercise their profession, and to assure that their members are living up to those professional standard while exercising their profession. The National Association of Realtors also believes in members adhering to professional guidelines as they exercise their profession if by “adhering to professional guidelines as they exercise their profession” they mean punishing people for anything from “unwillful discrimination” to “disparate impact” in any and all aspects of their private lives.

     A few highlights of just how insidious this is (bold sections highlighted by your humble author):

  • Speech deemed hateful when made by realtors on their social media (or anywhere else in their lives) “should not be allowed to continue” and “must be stopped” because all realtors are guilty by association with a “hateful few.” Who determines “hateful speech” now, though?
  • Everything a realtor does in their lives will be held up to the “anti-discrimination” standard operating in their professional code of ethics.
  • It bears repeating that this overreach into every aspect of realtors’ lives will apply not just to willful discrimination but all discrimination. “Willful” is intentionally struck out. Would this include microaggressions? Impact not intent? Honest mistakes? Misinterpretations?
  • To highlight the impact of this proposed change, if found in violation of their harassing or hate speech policies anywhere in their lives, realtors will be handed over to their state licensing authorities as acts of discrimination relevant to the profession.
  • The provision will apply to “harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs,” that lead to “overt discrimination or disparate impact.” The latter of these two is worryingly subjective, as we’ve seen very clearly all year. The rationale is very “impact not intent.”
  • These proposed changes have been approved in special emergency meetings that go outside of protocol by a special advisory board that circumvents the usual processes.
  • What’s the impact? Realtors in violation could lose their licenses and labeled bigots by their professional guild. These violations are to be considered “particularly egregious.” The context is chilling and rather Orwellian, since it applies to realtors’ whole lives.
  • What’s the overarching context? The usual. George Floyd died, so they need diversity. They need to look internally. They need to police speech of all of their members at all times. Why? Disparate impacts
  • Enforcement can be used to “raise consciousness” and serve as “an effective educational tool.” The Code’s duties should be “enforced, and enforced with vigor and determination.”
  • As a new type of egregious example of misconduct, a realtor was deemed to have been discriminatory and used hate speech on social media (example not disclosed), was fined $5000 and assigned *implicit bias training*. First offense. $5000.
  • Hearing Panels can look back as far into one’s (social media) history as necessary to apply discipline when the problem is “a violation of public trust,” as these amendments would turn any act of “hate speech” into.
  • Whatever “fair housing” refers to, it includes unconscious bias training and profiling “leaders who exemplify the best fair housing practices and workplace diversity,” which probably means giving awards and status to Woke realtors.
  • This is about realty, but it’s not about realty. This could be any professional entity with ties to professional licensure at the state level, and you could be judged on very subjective standards and fined and removed from your ability to do your job over them.

     An archive of their webpage discussing this can be found here and here.

     Copies of their “Professional Standards Committee Recommendations”, their FAQ about their recommendations, and full relevant agenda, can be viewed below.

PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS COMM… by ThePoliticalHat

Frequently Asked Questions … by ThePoliticalHat

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REA… by ThePoliticalHat

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