Are MLS and REALTORS treating this seriously?
AKMLS had 3 meetings and our students gave the meetings a mixed report card. The students in last week's live classes just after the AKMLS meeting, reported the mediation attorney AKMLS brought up didn't understand the restraint of trade issues and said Alaskan real estate professionals were not at risk. Really? That's what NAR said before they lost the $1.4 Billion case representing plaintiffs in 1 state that could lead to triple damages on top of what the jury awarded.
Some students said the meetings were a waste of time with no real answers they could use. There were no real suggestions on how to move forward to reduce risk.
Can we rely on NAR and MLS attorneys to make our case? Their track record shows the answer is no. Underperforming attorneys and underwhelming experts are striking out and missing key arguments that should be made, to win the cases. I was also told that the AKMLS attorney said individual members and teams were not at risk. That is not what the most recent class action lawsuits expanding in other states indicate.
Communication updates and strategies to reduce our risk have not been forthcoming from our industry support organizations. We have likewise not seen an orchestrated effort to share strategies with the best and brightest. Are the other Realtor MLS services in Alaska meeting with the independent AKMLS to share resources? Are they meeting with their members to share insights from NAR who just lost the case?
AKMLS did not invite all their members to solicit the most feedback from which to draw the best strategies to reduce risk. After the meeting the AKMLS Board of directors met and passed bylaw changes to make offering compensation to selling licensees optional.
I am currently reviewing hundreds of pages of documents and the 107 page South Carolina legal filing that identifies the 199 sections of the complaint. I am addressing every section of that complaint that is similar to the other cases in other states. I am spending hundreds of hours building an argument against the charges, like I have done in 35 expert witness cases. I am working hard to get licensees, in Alaska and nationwide, some defenses for their cases,
I have my records dating back 30 years that outline arguments needed to win the cases, that I was making 3 decades ago that relate to consumer representation. It is sad to see the MLS, Realtor and Franchises neglecting to make key arguments to help their members prevail.
I am currently building resources and forms to address the tools you need to defend yourself when lawsuits come to Alaska. Stay tuned next week with an update from our Maui Conference.
Best regards,
Jerry Royse, ITI
It is going to get worse!
Live CE classes are better than Correspondence, particularly for this Class Action issue, additionally we have added the discussion and suggested strategies to reduce your risk to our DCE courses. It was exciting to see the networking, partnerships and strategic partnerships, team building recruiting and resource sharing that happened at our last live classes.
You should seriously consider signing up for our next live classes, Jan 6-7 or Jan 8-9, where we will give you tools to reduce your risk for the class action lawsuits that are likely heading our way. We will have workshops and role plays to refine your commission discussion to reduce your risk. You can't get that same level of protection and training in a correspondence class. But hurry to register, these classes have limited slots available and will sell out.
Jerry Royse, at the helm of Royse and Associates, stands out in real estate education with over 35 years of experience teaching across 46 states and 5 countries. A seasoned educator, Jerry has trained thousands in Sales Pre-Licensing and Continuing Education, also applying his expertise as an expert witness in over 30 legal cases and successfully closing over 1100 homes as a Buyer Broker. His extensive knowledge marks him as a preeminent expert in the field.
