This post was written by Joe Kennedy, Broker with AAA Properties and Publisher of Eastside Business newspaper and online news site and first appeared on the Eastside Business Blog.

It’s (almost) funny how the REALTORS® are trying to blame the real estate market (local and national) on the media.  Almost funny, but more embarrassing, because in addition to being a member of “the media”, I am actually a dues paying member of the Seattle King County Association of Realtors, Washington Association of Realtors, National Association of Realtors, North San Diego Association of Realtors and California Association of Realtors - at least until my membership expires at the end of this year.  I don’t think that I will be renewing my memberships and helping them pay for their smear the media campaign.

I first heard about this when I was at the 2006 NAR Convention (Nardi Gras) in New Orleans last November.  I heard some very highly thought of national real estate “leaders” cursing “the media” for all the “misinformation” we’ve been spreading.  I guess it hurts when “the media” reports the news that is actually happening and is not living in the same fantasy world that some “suits” are in…
Using the Realtors logic, it must have been because of the media that the real estate market went crazy here for the last three + years?  How come we didn’t get any credit for the local market seeing unheard of housing appreciation and exploding into very unrealistic property values?  I can tell you that I was not one of the real estate “professionals” who continued to tell my clients that they could continue to expect to see double digit appreciation every year.  For me it was easy to see that our market is overvalued and that what goes up always goes down.  For the past year I’ve been recommending anyone who is considering to sell their property to get it on the market as quickly as possible.  If you’ve waited until the last three or four months, in my opinion, you’ve waited too long to sell at the top of the current cycle.  That does not mean you still cannot get a good price for your property ….
I suppose it is also the media’s fault that the sub-prime market imploded?  I’m sure it was the media’s fault that lenders were loaning money to anyone who could spell real estate?  I know “the media” had guns to investors’ heads telling them to buy houses that have no chance of turning a positive cash flow if they cannot be sold and need to be rented - it has to be “the media”’s fault.

Ironically the local realtor organizations are doing the very thing they are accusing “the media” of doing - making generalizations.  I personally find it very embarrassing to be a member of groups that make unfounded accusations and generalizations.  In my humble opinion, they are giving the public many more reasons not to trust realtors, as well as other real estate professionals and I think they are doing the public, their members and “the media” a great disservice.  I am much more proud to be considered a member of “the media” than a member of any membership organization that acts the way these groups have been.
This topic is obviously very touchy and I am unfortunately on both sides of this fence, but I would love to hear what our readers (realtors and non-realtors) have to say about it.