The members of the associated local boards call themselves "realtors," as distinct from "real-estate men" or "land dealers"—names which, they feel, are tainted by the unscrupulous methods of the "sharks."
The association has published a code of ethics for its members, in which paragraph 13 is especially noteworthy. It reads:
As a duty to the public and each other, members should report to the board misrepresentations or any fraudulent, criminal, or illegal act pertaining to real estate, which may entrap and injure innocent or ignorant persons; and the board owes it to members and the community to take steps to stop such practices and to punish parties guilty thereof.
The local boards often render certain services to the community. The valuation committees are often called upon to give their expert advice in land matters even to the courts and government administrative offices.
But how far the association is successful in combating the underhand business methods of the unscrupulous real-estate men is very difficult to say. The fact is this, that the association favors public registry and regulation of the real-estate trade and at present is working toward that end, supporting bills of this nature that are introduced in the state legislatures. A number of the realtors are not in favor of the words "license" and "licensing." They prefer instead the words "certificate," "registry," and "regulation," believing that the word "license" is associated in the popular mind with saloon-keeping and similar trades of a lower order.
The desire of these men to separate from ordinary real-estate men by calling themselves "realtors" and their business a "profession," and their advocacy of public regulation, show that the land "shark" is still very much alive and that the real-estate men themselves by their own private efforts are not able successfully to combat the "shark."
In the field of private land dealing there is appearing a substitute for the individual dealer. The modern colonization company has recently grown up, and out of this new project have grown broader policies and methods.