Subject: PAC-rrrs vs. Packers -- "Oh, That's What They Were Thinking!" Date: Tue, 05 Mar 2002 09:38:43 -0600 From: Jay Reifert Organization: Excel-Exclusive Buyer Agency [Legislators can request a free copy of Ray Wilson's Book, "Bought, Not Sold" by emailing true-agents@true-agent.com . There are about fifty free copies available for legislator/staff use.] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- List Removal Instructions: Reply to this Message With "Remove" in the Subject Line or Body of the Message. Governmental Officials and Their Respective Staffs Will Not Be Removed From This List. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Massachusetts Sociologist, Consumer Activist and Author, Ray Wilson, shares his thoughts about the Wisconsin Realtors Association's attempt to sneak Designated Agency by Wisconsin home buyers, sellers and...yes, the Wisconsin Legislature. For more information about Ray Wilson, articles he has written and his insightful book, "Bought, Not Sold", please see the reviews appearing beneath his message. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- PAC-rrrs vs. Packers -- "Oh, That's What They Were Thinking!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "What in the world were you thinking??" has become almost a universal theme in the response of literate people to these transparent "Designated Agency" proposals to state legislatures. It actually was a literate state legislator -- a Committee Chair -- who first uttered that question to the State Realtor Chief daring to pitch this consumer-snookering scheme to the Massachusetts legislature. Massachusetts sent both scheme and schemer packing. Incredibly, that has not been the case in a couple of dozen other states where the question, "What were they thinking?" now contemplates not only the hustlers, but the hustled legislatures. Take Wisconsin (certainly what the Designated Agency sponsors in that state are attempting) for example. While greed is the underlying motive for abandoning a century of commitment to genuine agency representing only one side of the market in a firm, there is a -- wellllll --- WEIRD twist to Wisconsin's joining in the plot to masquerade people in the same agency as buyers' agents and sellers' agents. The problem is that Wisconsin really is not an "agency state" -- not since 1994 when it effectively outlawed agency (and clients) with legislation which requires all brokers to provide confidentiality to all consumers, as per Section 452.133 which continues today as an underlying part of the proposed statute. Section 452.133 requires brokers to provide both confidentiality and disclosure to all parties in a transaction. The "Catch-22" is that "confidentiality" on one side in fact means not to disclose to the other side -- so providing them to both sides makes them mutually exclusive. These established fiduciary duties are historically owed by agents only to their clients, since they are mutually exclusive when one person owes them to both sides. ---------Editorial Note Mutually Exclusive refers to two events that are not possible to occur simultaneously. For instance, if you roll a die, the event of "getting a one" and the event of "getting a two" are mutually exclusive, since it is not possible for the die to be both a one and a two on the same roll. The occurrence of one event, "excludes" the possibility of the other event. JR ---------Editorial Note As if to correct for this mutual exclusivity problem, "disclosure" is defined narrowly to apply to revealing only things adverse to the interests of each party. "Confidentiality" means revealing nothing that either side would "want" to be known unless required by the disclosure requirement. This disclosure rule is like the NFL creating a rule requiring the Green Bay Packers' coach to disclose offensive plays to the Denver Broncos' defense, since the plays are clearly adverse to the Broncos' interest. The confidentiality rule would mean the coach couldn't tell Brett Favre that he's noticed the Denver cornerback being slowed by a weak ankle... because the Broncos obviously would not want that known... Football is the perfect sports metaphor for market negotiation, both marked by measured gains and losses as the ball moves up and down the field. Any Packers' gain is a Broncos' loss, and vice versa. These perverted disclosure/confidentiality rules guarantee the ball will move with all the speed of grass growing. Disclosure smothers strength and confidentiality protects weakness. Both game and market action require using strengths and exploiting weakness. It's why team owners hire coaches and real estate consumers hire agents. -- it is called "competition". But, it is not a game in real estate -- not for the consumers taking on the biggest debt of their lives, committing their families to new neighborhoods, and their kids to new school districts. Unlike the Packers, real estate consumers are not pro's. They hire the pro's --the agents -- to carry the ball for them. And Wisconsin won't let the "agents" indeed be "agents". Rather, they are simply "facilitators" who play "pretend agent" and collect a real agent's commission -- all with the Wisconsin law's blessing. Genuine confidentiality and disclosure are a genuine agent's fiduciary duties to his/her client and to no one else! Both are fundamental not only to the common sense of what agency is, but to the very sanity of service to a client! It would be plain nuts for the Packers' offensive strategy not to (1) keep its own play confidential and (2) stay alert to find (i.e., disclose) weaknesses on the opposing team. That is what competition is all about -- both in a football game and in a competitive market. "Competitive"? AHA!! THAT'S what they're thinking!! These PAC money wielding lobbyists for the Wisconsin Realtors Association don't want a competitive market!! Unlike the Packers, these PAC-rrrs don't wear obvious uniforms, and there's no crowd in the stands watching their moves. What they're thinking is that they are invisible, that they can get away with it! Nobody's watching?? Do you hear that, 20/20, Sixty Minutes, Dateline, O'Reilly, Wisconsin Legislators, voters, cheeseheads? I, myself, am a Patriots fan from Massachusetts. This year, we're "number one". So is our legislature. Ray Wilson ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Ray Wilson is a seasoned organizational and cultural analyst and speaker. He has directed organizational and operational development in government, industry, and non-profit sectors. He once operated his own traditional real estate agency with more than a dozen agents and designed and chaired a statewide Realtors public service campaign. His graduate study focused on the emerging quality culture, where he recognized buyer agency as the leading edge of the real estate Quality Revolution. Here's what others have had to say about Ray Wilson's book, "Bought Not Sold" which is available through nationally known booksellers like Amazon. ( http://www.amazon.com ) "...reveals the complexity and risks which confront home buyers and sellers in dealing with agents." Stephen Brobeck, Executive Director, Consumer Federation of America "Consumers and legislators should understand the issues discussed in these pages. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) exposed abuses back in 1983, many of which remain even today. As the book shows, reform efforts were often either superficial, unenforced, or subverted by vested interests which still continue working against the consumer." Paul Roark, primary writer of the 1983 FTC Report: "The Residential Real Estate Industry"` "...essential reading. ...full of important information to help consumers avoid grief and save thousands of dollars." James M. Shannon, Former Attorney General, Commonwealth of Massachusetts ***** You can also read more of Ray Wilson's common sense works by going to: http://www.ired.com and searching the site for, what else...Ray Wilson. ------------------------------------------------------------------- Please contact your legislators to voice your opposition to LRB 4720...Designated Agency. You can find out how to contact your legislators to register your oppostion by going to: http://www.legis.state.wi.us/wamltest/ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Also, PLEASE forward this message to everyone you can and please also print it out--and distribute--to those who you know that don't have email capabilities.] --------------------------------------------------------------------- [This message is going out to thousands of Wisconsin Realtors, almost 500 governmental officials--including all State Legislators and their respective staffs, the Governor of Wisconsin and most candidates for Governor of Wisconsin, the Attorney General of Wisconsin, over 425 Consumer Advocacy Groups and/or individual Consumer Advocates, over 285 Registered Wisconsin Lobbyists and over 190 Media Outlets.] -- Sincerely Yours, Jay Reifert, Organizer/Director of Operations REAL-Reform (Real Estate Agency Law-Reform) http://www.real-reform.org Jay Reifert, Broker/Owner*****************Excel-Exclusive Buyer Agency 100% Homebuyer Representation********5136 E. Hilltop Road 100% Of The Time****************************Madison, Wisconsin 53711 South Central Wisconsin's ONLY********(800)928-9379, Toll Free Full-Time Exclusive Buyer Agency Firm.***(608)273-8841, Office Visit http://www.true-agent.com ***********(608)273-8388, Fax Machine or http://www.Buy-Madison-Real-Estate.com or mailto:true-agents@true-agent.com