I was recently teaching the “When Article 12 and Web 2.0 class” in Minneapolis. It was interesting to find that the Department of Commerce that monitors the behavior of licensees in MN have hired 3 additional full time employees to monitor the behavior of real estate agents on line! What is also interesting is that the agents are being fined $1000 for any ‘bad behavior’! Now that’s a way to raise funds for the government! Agents and Brokers alike are upset and saying ‘Why didn’t they tell us there were changes in the law!” Interestingly, there aren’t changes in the law…agents and brokers never applied the ‘standard print rules’ to the internet! OH….yes the laws, regulations, and ethics apply to ALL media! So you have seen the ‘agent’ websites or ‘team’ websites where its all about the agent…not the brokerage, right? Well those sites are now in danger…especially when the name of the agent is bigger than the name of the company (that is specific to MN..and maybe your state as well). More importantly they are searching the internet for ‘listed properties’ and then seeing how they are advertised. I recently pointed out to an agent that the listing where posted under ‘their brand name’, i.e.greatpropertiesbymarcie.com instead of in my case, Real Estate Investment Properties. When I called them on that, their response was that those listings didn’t belong to the ‘parent company’. I would gently remind those agents with their own brand to reconsider who the property is listed with and to make sure that all of the listings are advertised under the company name, with an additional mention of your brand.
You’ll also see more citings by the Professional Standards committee of the local board/state association! Be sure that agents and brokers alike are following the letter of the law and following Article 12 of the Code in order to avoid penalties and fines.
I have several courses that we can offer you either live or by webinar to help you with training! Let us know if we can help!
