Dancing with Mauricio: On NAR, commissions and what scares him
The TV star and founder of The Agency says running an association is “a pain” but sees opportunities to improve the agent experience and “fragmented” MLS space.
Key points:
- Umansky, who co-launched a new association in January, said NAR isn't doing enough for members: "They've done everything for themselves."
- He worries that the buyer agreement mandate could backfire because agents will include anti-consumer terms.
- With offers of compensation leaving the MLS, "all of us brokers are sitting out there trying to figure out how to talk about them," he said.
When someone is asked what their average day is like and replies, "I don't HAVE average days," they can sound grandiose.
Unless that someone is Mauricio Umansky.
The globe-trotting entrepreneur, luxury agent and founder of The Agency has a very un-average life, one that is well documented on shows like "Buying Beverly Hills" and "Dancing with the Stars."
Umansky unlocked a new level of attention and complication in January when he teamed up with Jason Haber to launch the American Real Estate Association to rival the National Association of Realtors. It hasn't been easy.
"This is a pain in the butt for me, to be honest with you," he said after taking the stage at the annual conference of the National Association of Real Estate Editors last month. "I am not excited about running this association. I just want to make things better, and I happen to be a personality that people pay attention to."
He's frustrated with NAR, but …
Umansky, who acknowledged that he's a member of the National Association of Realtors, said that association has not done enough for its 1.5 million members. "They've done everything for themselves," he said. "I just want things to be done for the benefit of the Realtors." He's frustrated by the $418 million deal NAR made to settle commissions lawsuits — and not just because he's the CEO of a brokerage that was left out of it. Here are some other reasons, edited for length and clarity:
On buyer agreements, which will be required starting August 17: "I'm scared of fraud. There's gonna be so many lawsuits, okay? Because here's what's going to happen: You're a buyer, and you come to me and you say, 'Hey, I want to go look at this house.' And I say to you, 'In order for you to look at this house, you've got to sign this buyer agreement.' But the buyer agreement that I have you sign makes me your exclusive agent for the next three years. And you don't really realize that. You walk into the house with me and you hate me and you're like, I don't want this guy representing me. And I'm like, 'Well, you have no choice. You just signed an agreement that says I'm your exclusive person for the next three years.' Right?"
"You're gonna be suing me. It is going to be the biggest mess on the planet. And we haven't even begun to see it. But I can tell you I know real estate agents, and I can guarantee you that they are going to be putting in their terms and conditions — and you as a buyer are not going to know what's going to be in there."
On commissions and concessions, post-NAR settlement: "The settlement agreement says that we can all talk about commissions to selling offices, within our social networks or within our own personal brokerage website. But we cannot talk about it in the MLS, so all of us brokers are sitting out there trying to figure out how to talk about them because the reality is that they're needed, okay?"
"And I can tell you we're going out on listing appointments, and sellers are not saying 'oh, I no longer want to offer this thing.' Sellers are saying 'I want to offer these commissions. I want to incentivize you to bring people.' And you know, I'm friendly with other CEOs, and we're all having conversations about this, and most sellers still want to offer a commission."
Despite his frustrations, Umansky doesn't want NAR to go away. "Just to be clear, I am not trying to take them out of business," he said. "If NAR is the association that ends up existing and we're back to one but it's a better one, I'm good with that too."
Bringing change to the MLS space
One thing Umansky's new association will not do is get involved with multiple listing services, he said, despite his frustrations with the current system and its hundreds of "fragmented" MLSs covering different parts of the country.
The new association — which currently has about 5,000 members — "is strictly about lobbying and advocating," Umansky said. "I am working on a national listing service," which has been involved in litigation with NAR and major associations, "but that has nothing to do with the association." In January, however, he told the New York Times that the new association would offer access to listings via TheNLS.com.
Umansky said a national listing service would "bring down pricing and take care of a lot of the concessions and the things that we're talking about. And that is an exciting opportunity."