Crooked New London Realtors

Last week, I wrote about the New London Day's six month investigation into mortgage fraud in the area.  As a result of the Day's news story, a letter to the editor appeared today that struck to the heart of the matter for me. The writer referred to "crooked Realtors and their cronies".  I'm sure there were more than a few people that muttered "crooked Realtors" when they read the original New London Day news story.  For two years, many in the real estate community knew something was wrong.  Efforts to blow the whistle were met with resistance.  And although the Eastern CT Association of Realtors® received at least a dozen complaints, no one filed a formal written complaint. I can only guess that fear of retribution was the reason. 

I've thought about this a lot since the article appeared in the New London Day on May 20th.  As Realtors®, why do our rules make it so hard to police our own?  Unless that changes, we deserve to be called "crooked".