There’s an interesting post on the National Association of Realtor website in response to a recent Harris Poll that ranked real estate agents as the least prestigious of professions.  The reason for the disappointing placing, reasons the NAR, is that "real estate agent" was offered as an option in the multiple choice survey instead of Realtor ® .  The NAR reasons that a Realtor® is to real estate agents as Mercedes is to car. 

Some of you will have read Steven Levitt’s excellent book Freakanomics, a thought provoking read on diverse topics relating to economics and market forces.  I look at Levitt’s blog every now and then.  He has an interesting comment on the NAR argument above:  “While I guess you’re supposed to assume that a Mercedes is more trustworthy and downright better than a plain old Car, you could just as easily assume that, in the eyes of most people, it’s simply more expensive.” 

Note:  I fear that two professions that would most accurately describe me -  real estate investor and dot.com entrepreneur - would have limped in even lower than real estate agent had they been included in the survey.  Oh well.  But I used to be a Military Officer and that ranked pretty high...I'll take that as some consolation.