On July 17, 1947, The National Association of Real Estate Boards applied to the United States Patent Office to register REALTOR as a trademark. The date claimed for first usage was March 31, 1916. It first came into common parlance with an utterance by a witness at a subcommittee hearing in 1919. Three years later, Sinclair Lewis used it in his novel, “Babbitt”. The word appeared in dictionaries in 1917.
Today, most dictionaries define the word as having to do with the National Association of REALTORS. However, this doesn’t stop language from flowing around the boundaries of law. Many people use the word “realtor” interchangeably with “real estate agent”. In speech, it may be overlooked, but since the NAR does not want the people who are not authorized by the Board to be mixed up with their own members, they are less forgiving of the improper usage of “realtor” in print, even by REALTORS themselves.
First of all, if you’re not a REALTOR and you pass yourself off as one, with the usage of REALTOR or REALTORS in your site or your advertising, NAR is gonna get medieval on yo’ assets. It usually starts...
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