Mike Cassidy is all smiles for a guy whose career has put him in a couple of tight spots lately.
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Cassidy, a real estate broker and co-owner of Oklahoma City's Coldwell Banker Advantage, is president of MLSOK.COM Inc., the Multiple Listing Service of the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors. He also is past president of the association, which has undergone a sea of change in leadership the past several months.
That's the first tight spot. As one of the leaders pushing for reform in what the Realtors association is all about — less theory, more practice, less international perspective, more local Realtor service — Cassidy has drawn the ire of those who wanted things to stay the same.
The second tight spot is his seat on the Oklahoma Real Estate Commission, where he has chosen to step aside in the case against Ann Campbell, an Edmond Realtor.
Campbell pleaded guilty Dec. 13 to a federal charge of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with mortgages in the sale of homes in Edmond's Oak Tree addition. She is cooperating with prosecutors. At the state level, the Real Estate Commission has pulled her license and fined her.
Campbell's sponsoring broker, Ruth Boss, is co-owner of Dominion Group, which owns RE/MAX First in Edmond and RE/MAX Associates in Oklahoma City. The other co-owners are Gigi Faulkner and Victoria Caldwell, the current president of the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors and president-elect of the MLS board.
Cassidy talked about changes in the Realtors group and his role on the Real Estate Commission in a recent interview.
Q: How did a nice guy like you wind up on the Real Estate Commission?A: Well, it's something I've always wanted, and when I knew it would be available, Jim Meyer, my partner, is a friend of the governor's, so I asked him to put in a good word for me. I also do business with Hunter Miller down in Norman, Sooner Real Estate, and his father-in-law, Barry Switzer. I asked him to put in a good word for me. And Joe Pryor (a Realtor with RE/MAX Associates in Edmond) and I do business together. Well, his cousin by marriage, Lisa Pryor, is state Democratic chairman (and executive director). So I asked him to put in a good word for me. So the three of them put in a good word for me and I got appointed.
Q: I knew there was a story. You don't just wake up with the phone ringing in a deal like that.A: I knew it was available. It was something I was interested in doing.
Q: You've told me before that people misunderstood when you abstained (from voting) a couple of times in cases involving Ann Campbell. So, why did you abstain?A: Before I was appointed to the Real Estate Commission, I went to a broker's open that Ann had up at Oak Tree. She proceeded to tell me a lot of information that I should not know. That automatically disqualifies me. ... I have talked to people in Ann Campbell's company about it. I've had people call and talk to me about it. And automatically, it just disqualifies me.
Q: And plus you are serving, and have served, with Victoria Caldwell who, while she is not Ann's sponsor, is co-owner of the company. That's a little close for comfort, too, isn't it? To be sitting in judgment, which in essence is what you do.A: Right, right. And with Victoria and I — she's president-elect and I'm president of the MLS board, while she's president (of the Realtors association), there is closeness on that. I've asked Anne Woody (executive director of the Real Estate Commission) about this because I do do a lot of business here in Oklahoma City and I am active with (the Oklahoma City Metro Association of Realtors and the Oklahoma Association of Realtors), and there will be issues that come up. And she's basically told me, "If you do not feel comfortable, then you need to excuse yourself.”
Q: Your conscience is your guide.A: Right. I've heard people make comments. They don't understand why I've excused myself. I guess they don't realize it doesn't matter if I think right or wrong. I just can't do it. ... This has been the only thing that I've felt like I couldn't vote on.Q: Going back to (the metro Realtors): You're not president anymore, but you're still active in the leadership. What is it about the Old Guard? Why can't they accept change? Now, that's a loaded question. But what's the problem here?A: To be honest with you, it's a 180-degree change in philosophy. When MLS was first started, when I first got involved in real estate, the advantage we had with being a Realtor was that we had the information. You had to come to me for that information. You don't have to come to me today. With the Internet, they can get it. And as a general rule — the (National Association of Realtors) puts out these stats — 80 percent of all transactions start on the Internet. And that's the big issue. They wanted to keep control, in my estimation. As far as I'm concerned, you can't do that anymore.
When we went to the Internet, we lost that control. All we can do is try to control what information we give out. The buying public is demanding: They want to know the price. They want to know the square footage. They want to know the schools. They want a CMA (comparative market analysis). They want all the information to make their decision.
My father was a doctor. He died in '77. He was the Marcus Welby-type doctor. You never had a patient on (the television series "Marcus Welby, M.D.”) question Marcus Welby about his diagnosis. Doctors that I talk to today, they give out diagnoses today and they say they are quite often challenged: What about this type of treatment? What about that type of treatment? The Internet.
The last car I bought, one of the first things I did was I went on the Internet to find out what kind of deal I could get. It's the same thing with medicine. They're going to do that. Well, that's happening with real estate.
Q: Are there any personalities involved, at some level? It comes across that way sometimes.A: I believe that there probably are some personalities to it, but that is not my, or Victoria's, business. What we're trying to do is get the board to where it can be more friendly to our members. That's No. 1. We look at our 3,500 members as our customers, and we're trying to make their dealings with the board, with the MLS, as seamless and smooth as possible. One of the things we've had in the past is that's not been the case. They'd call down there, they'd have trouble getting returned calls. If there was a problem, they'd have trouble getting it resolved. You know, this is a very frustrating business. (One Realtor) said she gets very upset when someone gets in the way of her making money. She said, ‘I don't know — I don't get here at 8 in the morning and leave at 5. I don't get a check.” You know, really, when you're an independent contractor, that's what's important.
