Board of REALTORS Gone Rabid, Sarasota MLS Board Out For Blood!!
A friend and fellow REALTOR of mine Mark Rasmussen of Sarasota Florida, has become the victim of the Sarasota MLS Board’s jealousy. In a totally vindictive and malicious move, the board of REALTORS in Sarasota has decided that they will take town the most prominent real estate website in Sarasota no mater what it does to their member in good standing Mark Rasmussen.
Kathy Roberts, the CEO of the Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR), has been all over the web trying to do some online reputation managment, or someone claiming to be her anyway. In this attempt she has been making statements which look to be half truths, such as the Sarasota Association of REALTORS having the trade mark rights to Sarasota MLS for over 50 years, when they only applied for that trade mark in July of 2008, and it is not even clear if that trade mark has been granted yet. Mean while Mark purchased the rights to the domain Thesarasotamls.com back in 2003 when even the National Association of REALTORS (NAR) was recommending in it’s own publications that to do so was just plain good business practice, and recommending that it’s members do so.
Helen Sosso The president of the Sarasota Board of REALTORS for 2008 has said:
“I want to use my year as president to encourage our members to be more cooperative, and more professional in our dealings with one another. We all have the same inventory of properties to sell, and it’s more important than ever in the current market that we all work together and maintain our professionalism.”
As posted on Knox’s blog linked to below. I don’t think this action and Helen Sosso’s statment above quite jive!!
Now that NAR has decided to change the rules, they need to understand the amount of work and money it takes to build up a domain name such as Mark’s domain TheSarasotaMLS.com and how their attempts to take it away will destroy his business. Of course Kathy Roberts, the CEO of the Sarasota Association of Realtors likly already knows what it will do to Mark and his business, and that is her goal.
For more great information on this nasty subject visit:
Sarasota Association of REALTORS - in need of online reputation management help
Sarasota Association of REALTORS (SAR) Slaps One of its Own
And of course a little support for Mark’s new domain Sarasota Real Estate
It is such a shame that a board of REALTORS would go after one of it’s own like the Sarasota Board of REALTORS has gone after Mark. Please visit the above links to get the full detailed story, and a look at one of the villains of the crime.
Wishing you all the best Mark, James Boyer REALTOR Chatham NJ Real Estate
For More information about Chatham New Jersey and Morristown New Jersey.
14 Responses to “Board of REALTORS Gone Rabid, Sarasota MLS Board Out For Blood!!”
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October 21st, 2008
Thanks for making your readers aware of this.
Be sure to click my name link to see how you can help Marc FIGHT SAR! Legal fund is together.
Good work, Jim!
knox
October 21st, 2008
Not a problem at all. It is people like those over in the Sarasota Board of REALTORS, who let power go to their heads, that really drive me crazy.
I am sure that SAR is going to be regretting this action for a long time.
October 22nd, 2008
[…] Board of REALTORS Gone Rabid, Sarasota MLS Board Out For Blood!! […]
October 23rd, 2008
Yeah, it’s shameful what’s going on with Marc and his domain. I hope he kicks butt with his new domain and continues to rock in that market.
October 24th, 2008
Thanks for joining the fight Jim!
October 24th, 2008
Not a problem at all, I figure fair is fair, and the Sarasota Board of REALTORS is not being being fair at all. SAR deserves 2 black eyes a bloody nose, and a huge judgement against them.
As I have said before the Sarasota Board of REALTOR, or the Sarasota Association of REALTORS SAR should be ashamed of themselves.
October 24th, 2008
So, you’re saying, if a REALTOR in my community uses the website mytownmls.com, therefore regularly being on top of the google lists and consistently driving all of the business to his website, that should be OK with me? Wow! Call me crazy but that seems like an unfair advantage to me! If that happens in my community, I sure hope the My Town Association jumps on it with both feet on behalf of me and all of my peers! Sorry, Marc — it just ain’t fair!
October 24th, 2008
Jimmy,
You cannot trade mark a city name, and MLS already belongs to major league soccer.
NAR - The National Association of REALTORS at the time Marc purchased his domain was advocating that REALTORS do things such as purchase domain names like MorristownMLS.com or MadisonMLS.com … that was back in 2003.
Now all of the sudden NAR wants to change the rules, and make all the many thousands of hours of work on promoting that domain worthless!! I think that is a crime, and totally wrong.
Your town has nothing to say about anybody owning domain names with your towns name in them. Just like with any other brand, if you own and develop a brand, it is not right for someone to come along and infringe on it.
October 24th, 2008
@Jimmy
It is NOT AN ADVANTAGE to have ‘mls’ in the domain - that is a MYTH.
A domain of “spejgn.com” has they EXACT chance to be on top as anything else.
You do not know what you’re talking about, simple as that.
October 25th, 2008
Board of REALTORS Gone Rabid, Sarasota MLS Board Out For Blood!!
I bet your glad that the Morristown NJ MLS is not like these people.
October 25th, 2008
Board of REALTORS Gone Rabid, Sarasota MLS Board Out For Blood!!
October 27th, 2008
I’m donating all my ad revenue to this cause. EVERYONE should dedicate one domain to this. it ads up.
http://www.notthesarasotamls.com/
November 10th, 2008
Mark is not the only person MLS has attacked so viciously. Lookup up the name Tciakovsky as well and you will find out even more…
December 16th, 2008
Sounds monopolistic to me. The SAR should compete, not hijack!