REBNY pulls out of NAR

Real Estate Weekly, August 17, 1994 by Lois Weiss

After years of wrangling over membership dollars and actual benefits, the Real Estate Board of New York has officially withdrawn from the National Association of Realtors.

While REBNY notified its membership of the pending change during this past winter, the National Association (NAR) has now formally requested the charter documents returned and officially acknowledged knowledged the retroactive withdrawal to January 1, 1994.

But ill affected brokers and salespeople are still being considered Realtor members for the 1994 year by the NAR and New York State Association of Realtors (NYSAR), whether or not the actual dues were paid.

At the heart of the issue were the number of salespeople and brokers that REBNY was required to pay dues for to the national and state associations. Under what is called a "three-way" agreement with the groups, REBNY was required to collect dues for all its member licensed brokers and salespersons in the territory of Manhattan.

REBNY claimed it had 800 members, while the State, group, after auditing the Department of State files, claimed it needed to pay for around 1,200.

According to REBNY's First Senior Vice President Warren Wechsler, it was REBNY's practice to report to the Realtor association all members who wanted to retain their association, and that, he said amounted to about half the licensees that belong to REBNY.

The dispute goes back decades, all the parties agreed, but came to a bead after REBNY surveyed its members and determined most did not want to remain part of the NAR and NYSAR.

A letter was sent to the members early this year. "It essentially said we get nothing from them," said one REBNY member who wished to remain anonymous. "It said we have our own presence in Albany; we have our own presence in Washington, The NAR just hit us up for six figures in fees, and we surveyed the membership and virtually all of you don't want to be affiliated with the national."

Wechsler, who was firm in his belief that the matter was private, said "For a variety of reasons, the affected real estate board members voted to terminate our organization's affiliation with the association and we hope that NAR and REBNY will continue to take similar positions on public policy issues of mutual concern in the future."

He insisted the dispute was not over public policy, adding "It was between the two groups."

A NAR hearing on the fee issue, a problem for other jurisdictions as well, was scheduled to be held in San Diego earlier this year. Rather than appearing, REBNY sent a letter in April requesting retroactive withdrawal to the first of the year.

In an August 5th letter to REBNY President Steven Spinola responding to its request, the NAR president, Robert E. Elrod wrote, "the retroactive withdrawal has serious consequences for the members who, in good faith, paid dues to the Real Estate Board of New York in anticipation that the appropriate amounts from those dues were being forwarded to the NAR and the New York State Association."

The letter also informs REBNY that services will be delivered to its Realtor members through the end of 1994, at which time they will have a choice of boards with which to affiliate and remain part of "our vital organization."

Laurene Janik, general counsel of NAR said, "We're hoping to soften the impact on the actual member."

Area boards are eager to help REBNY members who want to retain their NAR designations and use the Realtor name, that is trademarked for use only by members of NAR.

The Long Island Board of Realtor's Director of Communications, Randy Kaplan, said, while they won't go out and solicit them, REBNY Realtors would be welcome to join them. That group is already 10,000 strong.

Nuncio Del Greco, executive vice president of the Bronx Board of Realtors, said they were founded in 1924 and provide a wide range of services for all real estate professionals. Any of the former REBNY members will be welcome to join that board, too, he added.

John Leonardi, executive director, of Staten Island Board of Realtors, is vigorously trying to acquire the territory. "It's an unassigned territory," he added. "I have a full service MLS [multiple listing service], full service institute, and run a full board and we have a multitude of services we can offer."

In order to take over the territory, an application has to be in the hands of Patrick Reilly, director of board and member services for the NYSAR by August 28, he said. According to Reilly, there are over 1,800 local boards.

That would give him time to send out a 30-day notice to state members before presenting a proposal at the NYSAR meeting at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City, September 28th to 30th. The results of that meeting would be voted on by the NAR directors at their meeting in California later in the year.

Under the NAR charter, when REBNY collected dues they were required to collect the state and local dues from all members who were licensed brokers and salespersons, as well as those in their offices. REBNY has over 4,000 members who are primarily owners and developer;. "They gave the NAR affiliations to their members as options," said one real estate expert familiar with the situation.