I am a member of the Minnesota Association of REALTORS Professional Standards Committee.  This committee is charged with reviewing and hearing cases regarding disputes between member REALTORS over commission (an arbitration) and complaints of alleged violations of the REALTOR Code of Ethics (an ethics hearing), our governing rules for how all REALTORS must conduct themselves to be called REALTORS.

All in all, REALTORS are pretty good about obeying the rules.  As in any community though, there are some members that are either carelessly or intentionally naughty.  When someone feels wronged enough to submit a complaint, those complaints are then forwarded to the Professional Standards Committee to consider an ethics hearing.

When a complaint is received, 3 members of the committee and a staff member from the state association schedule a conference call to review the complaint & initial response from the member charged to determine: “if the accusations in the complaint are found to be true, would this be a violation of the Code of Ethics?”  We spend 10-15 minutes discussing the complaint and response and then take our vote.  If we agree there is a potential violation, it is forwarded back to the committee so a hearing can be scheduled.

The hearing is scheduled and 5 members of the Professional Standards Committee are selected to be the “judges” on the case with a member of the state association’s legal department acting as advisor and a senior member of the panel acting as Chair.  On the day of the hearing, all parties attend and call any witnesses they believe support their position.  The Complainant and Respondent can cross-examine each other and their witnesses.  The 5 member panel asks questions as appropriate throughout the hearing.  Once both sides have said their peace and the panel has had their opportunity to ask any questions they wanted, the parties are excused and the panel goes in to closed session to make a judgement.

We can find the Respondent guilty of nothing, or guilty of only some of the Article violations they were charged with, or find them guilty of all charges.  Depending on the Respondent’s previous history of violations and the violation(s) they have just been found guilty of, punishments can range from a letter of warning to fines in the $1000′s and/or suspension/expulsion from the Minnesota Association of REALTORS. Any monies earned from fines go back to the Association and not to the Complainant.

It is these deliberations that I find quite interesting, as everyone on the panel is not only judging the situation but reflecting on their own business practices and thinking about how they would have handled the situation.  No one in the room is perfect and so there is often some empathy for the Respondent but at the same time there is a strong interest to keep REALTORS honest and to prevent a recurrence of the activity in the future.  This form of self-regulating seems to work well and I think that everyone that participates in the hearing learns from the experience, which makes all of us better professionals.

Just like any system of justice, nothing is perfect.  Sometimes it may seem that the Respondent “got off easy” and I believe that we still have too few members reporting violations in the first place.  However, most people I’ve spoken to regarding the experience are generally pleased with the process.  This year I was on the Complainant side of the table and experienced firsthand the dispensing of justice.  I thought the hearing went extremely well and that both myself and the Respondent argued our cases well and were thoroughly engaged by the panel members to clarify our positions.  Regardless of the outcome of the hearing, I felt very happy with the experience itself and I know that the REALTOR will not repeat his actions in the future, and that I believe is the biggest benefit of all.