Changes to the REALTORS Code of Ethics for 2011

I wanted to share a piece from the 12/29/2010 Suburban West REALTORS Association Weekly Newsletter regarding changes to our REALTOR Code of Ethics for 2011 ...

The Code of Ethics is a continually evolving document. The Professional Standards Committee of the National Association of REALTORS evaluates the Code on a regular basis with an eye toward the legal and practical. For the 2011 edition of the Code of Ethics, the committee addressed the issue of advertising in text messages, tweets and other communications where character limitations make Code compliance difficult.

Standard of Practice 12-5 requires REALTORS to disclose the name of the REALTOR's firm in all advertisements in a reasonable and readily apparent manner. Recognizing that this information may use up most, if not all, of the available characters in some electronic media, the SOP was amended with the following language added: "This Standard of Practice acknowledges that disclosing the name of the firm may not be practical in electronic displays of limited information (e.g. "thumbnails, text messages, "tweets", etc.). Such displays are exempt from the disclosure requirements established in this standard of practice, but only when linked to a display that includes all required disclosures."

Other changes to the 2011 Code of Ethics are:

* A new Standard of Practice 3-10 was added to Article 3. The new SOP defines the cooperation that is required in Article 3. "The duty to cooperate in Article 3 relates to the obligation to share information on listed property, and to make property available to other brokers for showing to prospective purchasers/tenants when it is in the best interests of the sellers/landlords.

* Standard of Practice 3-7: This standard addresses the necessity for REALTORS to disclose their relationship with the client when seeking information from other REALTORS about a property under a listing or property management agreement. The last part of the standard was changed from "their representational status" to "their relationship status".

* Article 10 and Standard of Practice 10-3. For many years, the Code has assured the public that REALTORS would not deny any person equal professional services based on their race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin. In response to the recommendations of several state associations, Article 10 and Standard of Practice 10-3 were amended to add sexual orientation as a protected category.

Please take the time to go over and understand these changes for 2011.

Thank you & happy new year!!!