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:

The Sarasota MLS

Sarasota Association of REALTORS - in need of online reputation management help

Sarasota Association of REALTORS (SAR) Slaps One of its Own

TheSarasotaMLS.com Gone

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.