Listening to the RTB Radio show by Michael McClure, Maya Paveza, and Jim Duncan (guest speaker), it occurred to me that this whole conversation is skirting around the central question.  The answers are things like, "Well, we gotta figure it out" and "This is a process" and so on.  No, it is not.

Here's the single question that determines the validity of the entire "Raise the Bar" movement:

Is professionalism a competitive advantage in real estate or not?

If professionalism is a competitive advantage, then the entirety of the #RTB movement is a waste of time.  Because those who have a competitive advantage will drive out those who don't have it.  That's the law of business from the first time that Thag found a way to make a stone arrowhead five minutes faster than Grog back in the caveman days.  The professional brokers and agents will drive the unprofessional out of business.

If professionalism is not a competitive advantage, then the entirety of #RTB is merely an anti-competitive exercise designed to decrease competition.  As such, I regard it as illegitimate and any talk of "we care about the consumer" while at the same time reducing competition is either (a) ignorant or (b) deceptive.

Everything else, whether about leadership, NAR, Associations, legislative actions, regulation, etc. is non-essential distractions to this one question.

-rsh