In the news this past week, a consumer complaint website, realtor-complaints.com, reared its ugly head then was quickly and swiftly shut down by its domain registrar. Besides possibly being sued for trademark infringement, what exactly did the registrants of realtor-complaints.com accomplish? Nothing except for one aspect that taking the low road to a real estate industry issue has no purpose and is pointless. Historically, others attempted to sue the National Association of Realtors for trademark and anti-competitive issues. The United States Department of Justice was successful in their litigation attempt, but others have not been and most likely will not be in the future.
So, what is an alternative method to compete, complain or fight a real estate goliath? The better methodology is referred to as taking the high road. My point is that instead of taking the low road of litigation or derogatory websites, a high road of positive promotion and education should be taken. For instance, in lieu of disparaging real estate salespersons, an alternate method is to promote alternative real estate models such as fee-for-services and for sale by owner. By taking this approach, educational content describing how alternate real estate business models work and potential endpoints for contacting alternative business services are not only more professional actions, but also more ethical ones.
--Corey
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