Georgia Real Estate Commission Office

Recently there was a discussion on Bloodhound about real estate associations. I understand all the reactions from those who feel if you have problems then the best way to make changes is to get involved, but I would rather eat sawdust and have my eyes plucked out by crazed pigeons than to deal with the bureacrat mentality. There is no changing a bureaucratic system once it's infected by "governmentalism". Short of doing away with the whole sytem and starting from scratch, there is only tinkering with a screwed up system. The system is dead to the ones it's supposed to represent and serve.

Every time I've had to call the Georgia Real Estate Commission I've gotten some arrogant clerk who refuses to listen to what I have to say. Every time -- EVERY TIME -- I hang up angry and dissatisfied, the way I feel when I have to call a government agency.

This is the basic problem -- service. The Georgia Association of Realtors, The Georgia Real Estate Commission, they all have an attitude and mindset of being above agents and companies. I had to call the commission this morning to get an answer to a question, and it was the same old arrogant treatment. I was cut off in mid sentence, talked down to, and the general impression I got was one of disdain. It was if I had intruded on something important and needed to be dispensed of as soon as possible. It took going through a maze of automation just to reach the person, an automation designed to be obfuscating so that a caller would give up -- I had learned before when they give you the options, that the option to speak with someone is not given, you just have to wait until they go through the options twice, then remain silent, then they will put you through. Byzantine and deceitful.

The disease of "governmentalism" is the problem and it won't go away by complaining or joining a committee. It will take a major overhaul -- it will take hiring it out to a management company that understands service.

Update on Friday, July 11, 2008 at 12:29PM by Mike Farmer

Here is the stated purpose of the Commission:

To enforce these laws fairly and impartially, the members of the Real Estate Commission and its staff must:

• understand the attitudes and actions of both consumers and licensees in brokerage transactions and in their relationship with the Commission while relying on their experience as consumers and licensees to provide background for this understanding and to render fair and impartial treatment;
  
  
• make judgments and reach conclusions only after careful review of all relevant facts and opinions regarding allegations of wrongdoing and recommend modifications to the existing laws or new laws or regulations;
  
  
• supervise and administer the regulatory and disciplinary powers of the license law to provide that licensees and the public receive due process rights;
  
  
• generate rules and regulations that are reasonable, within the limits of the legislative law, and economically feasible to administer and enforce;
  
  
• communicate with licensees and the public to assure the appropriate dissemination of the laws and to obtain opinions and concerns regarding the nature and content of the laws;
  
  
• develop policies and procedures that are administratively feasible and not unduly burdensome to the public and licensees;
  
  
• respect and consider all opinions and views concerning the nature of the laws and their administration;
  
  
• express opinions on matters of conscience and policy in appropriate forums;
  
  
• and cooperate with their colleagues in the real estate community to improve the level of professionalism and knowledge concerning the nature and transaction of real property.

It's this commingling of government and associations that infects the whole system. The mindset is one of governance, regulators, controllers, protection. You get to a point in this system where you understand that it is government controlling real estate -- once we get so far from free enterprise, and as little rules and regulations creep in, and as committees form and enmeshment starts -- it feels dirty to have to simply get an answer to a question. I have the feeling when I deal with the association or the commission that my boss is a faceless bureaucrat hidden in a cold and unresponsive system.