In May of 2018, NAR’s Leadership Team Report on Code of Ethics Enforcement recommended that NAR “should take an aggressive role in ensuring that the boards and state associations meet their obligation to enforce the Code of Ethics,” and even recommended publicizing “the charter revocation procedures that may be involved should boards fail to enforce the Code of Ethics.”
Pretty strong stuff.
But the recommendations came with no new ways to enforce the Code other than classroom/online training. The problem with classroom training is that what is learned is often lost quickly. Barbara Fairfield, a noted instructor with no less than 12 certifications and designations and who was inducted into the REBAC Hall of Fame, says, “statistically, within 30 days of taking a course, 80 percent to 90 percent is lost. And in the case of the Code course, the agent does not come back for two years.”
Fairfield is one of the founders of new application called Quigler to which NAR has licensed its Code of Ethics for “educational purposes.” Quigler, in turn, has created for REALTORS® a new app that makes it easier to learn the Code and insert it into their daily transaction process. It is available to all REALTORS® free of charge at www.Quigler.com/NARCODE.
Quigler tells the agent what the Code requires at each “Step” of a buy/sell transaction by extracting from the Code those actions applicable to the transaction. It then organizes those required actions into a sequential series of Steps, from “Pre-Listing Activities” to “Accepted Offer/Contract” (nine in all), with the required Actions under each Step as a checklist. Each action is a simple “yes” or “no” question (i.e., Did you do this? Did you do that?).
When an agent does what the Code requires, the agent checks a box and can have Quigler send an automated notification to the agent’s client, creating a running written record of what the agent has done to comply with the Code, all time-stamped and dated.
“With the app, a REALTOR® gets an additional form of automated communication to their client on top of what the REALTOR® normally provides,” says David Michonski, founder and CEO of Quigler.
“The app becomes a way for a REALTOR® to re-enforce and enhance their ethical online reputation,” he says.
The REALTOR® also gets a way to provide transaction transparency to their client while demonstrating their process knowledge, something 92 percent of consumers say they want since they only buy or sell once every nine years, according to NAR’s Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers.
NAR’s Profile also says that 97 percent of consumers want honesty and integrity from their agent. Now REALTORS® have an app to help demonstrate that honesty and integrity for them.
“Good agents are like swans gliding across a lake, making the whole process look as simple as possible. Meanwhile, they are paddling furiously under the water. Quigler is a third party informing consumers of the many actions agents do that consumers never see ‘under the water,'” says Fairfield.
By providing such communication, transparency and process knowledge, the agent’s reputation for trust can grow, and that can lead to a new biz-gen tool for agents using the application.
“We want REALTORS® to know that having a reputation for being ethical is one of the best biz-gen tools an agent can ever develop,” says Michonski.
The NAR CODE ONLY version of the app is free to agents at www.Quigler.com/NARCODE.
