In response to our recent Best and Worst story of 2002, some Realty Times readers weigh in that they didn't appreciate our selection of Jim Lee as recipient of the Busybody Award.
Lee himself wrote of his disappointment in our news service: "I find the following to be pretty unflattering considering the good relations I thought I had with Realty Times."
On agent list-servs to stock message boards, posts from this intrepid Realtor show that he has a strong dislike of online lead generation vendors, especially Homestore. He zealously discourages fellow agents from supporting dot-com interlopers.
Unbeknownst to Lee, many Realtors are laughing all the way to the bank. We know. We talk to Realtors who are successfully using online tools every day, many from Homestore-operated Realtor.com.
When Realtors find something that works for them to bring in business, they tend to keep it to themselves. Wouldn’t you?
Here are some other letters to the editor:
Your Busybody Award is the absolute winner for the "Poorest Taste Award".
For a supposedly major operation to take the time to personally insult a
well-known individual for their beliefs is absolutely incredible. The
article indicates that you would like everyone to just follow blindly, not
make waves, and CERTAINLY not disagree with what you think. Can you say
Enron? How about Worldcom?
Thanks for letting us know what you REALLY think of us.
Eric Hauge ABR e-PRO SRES, Sales Associate, Weichert, Realtors
I don't agree with your comments about Jim Lee. Jim's efforts through the years have brought the latest 'shennagins' by Homestore to my attention. I have sent my thoughts and concerns to NAR many, many times. Jim Lee spearheaded alerts to many agents about Homestore's ongoing attempts to send leads from our listings to vendors they received money from. Those vendors then attempted to sell our own leads back to us!
I would not consider Jim Lee a 'Busybody'. Just an agent who does not appreciate online lead generation vendors offering our leads back to us for a fee. Perhaps you do talk to Realtors who are successfully using online tools every day, many from Homestore-operated Realtor.com. There is nothing wrong with using online tools - the problem is having to pay referrals fees to an online vendor when that online vendor received the lead to send to you from listings that were uploaded to Realtor.com from our MLS organizations. Maybe you would have to be a REALTOR® to understand this.
Jeanette
Norman & Jeanette Edwards, Keller Williams Realty
I sent the following email to RealTalk@InternetCrusade.com twice. Both times it appears to have been censored. I believe that this is a very cheap shot at Jim Lee, an individual agent. I don't like that idea. I agree with him. I will continue to try to end what appears to be censorship at RealTalk, and I have asked others to do the same. I'm sure the amigos felt a certain obligation to the Times for giving Saul an award, yet I believe that censorship is wrong. I will continue to post this at multiple real estate forums who do not censor, and I now am assisting in the formation of a forum that does not censor. Here is the letter I attempted to post at IC:
You Can’t Fix Stupid Award 2002 --- Realty Times
We all know that there are limits to fixing intelligence, especially hardened ideological beliefs, in short “You just can’t fix stupid.” Realty Times proved that they deserved this award, in my opinion, by suggesting that one of our own, Jim Lee, is wrong by discouraging fellow agents from supporting online lead generation vendors. Realty Times contends that, “Unbeknownst to Lee, many Realtors are laughing all the way to the bank. We know. We
Talk to Realtors who are successfully using online tools every day, many from Homestore operated by Realtor.com.” These comments were made by the nebulous “Realty Times Staff,” whatever that is. Well Realty Times Staff, you may not be able to fix stupid, BUT WE CAN !!!
From my perspective Jim is right. The interlopers, e-businesses whose primary business is e-commerce at the expense of agents, just don’t get it, and never will get it. Their lack of knowledge regarding the real estate business is staggering. These techno-triumphalists who claim to be the savior’s of the consumer, have in their ignorant bliss paraded into bankruptcy in ever increasing numbers. The dot.bomb revolution is their heritage, but somehow in ghostly fashion, their goulish rhetoric finds voice in the words of the posessed. I can hear them
now….Jimmmm Leeeeee, we will haunt you with dead ideas for the rest of your life !!! GAFAW !!! To me, anyone with a brain, and obviously that doesn’t include everyone, knows that third party e-commerce companies who take money out of the industry by getting in between the agent and the client, will have a negative financial impact on the industry as a whole and will result in a weakening of the industry and a loss of agents. But apparently, that is ok. Hmmmmmm, and I bet they even believe they are doing the consumer a favor, proving that ignorance is bliss. We know however, that in real estate, few things are worse than aggressive ignorance !!! So when Realty Times begins to bash ONE of our most respected agents with their hokum writings,
I think that we can reasonably conclude that THEY are NOT AGENT FRIENDLY. So with a shimmy and a shake a little decision I make……ByeBye Realty Times.
Sam Valenti, St. Charles Missouri
Editor's note: Mr. Valenti e-mailed the editor with this addendum after publication of the above story:
"The letter that I sent to you was finally posted at Real Talk, John had indicated that it appears to have been the result of my error in the format it was sent. I did accept his explanation on Real Talk and agreed to move on. The first paragraph of my letter (see below) was sent to you before John and I had come to an understanding on this issue. Truthfully, I did not expect it to be published on Realty Times but instead sent it as a private note to let you know how strongly I felt about the issue. Unfortunately I did not make that clear in the letter. So I ask that you post this note as a retraction of my earlier comments regarding censorship at RealTalk at Internet Crusade.
Published: January 7, 2003
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