NARPM Official Sponsorship – RentClicks Has it Locked Up?

From this comment the person named “InTheIndustry” says:

“As far as RentClicks being the ‘Official Partner’, I wonder how long it is going to take NARPM before they take away the ‘First Right or Refusal’ option from RentClicks, and offer it to somebody else. I am sure NARPM would make a lot more money if this was a bidding process.”

I have not verified if this is true are not with NARPM, but if it is that doesn’t sound fair to me.

I am not against having an Official Sponsor, I am just against that they are allowed to have link on each page of the NARPM site.

As for the first right of refusal, that doesn’t seem fair either – it just makes the profitable companies have a lock on staying profitable. (OK I know, that is an overly generalized statement)

To be fair, if they did allow me to bid on the Official Sponsorship I can tell you that I can’t afford it. But give someone else a try like RentalHomesPlus. I would love to see if RentalHomesPlus would increase their rankings because of the NARPM link on each page to satisfy a theory I have.

Update 2/15/07: I emailed Gail Phillips the Executive Director of NARPM and she was kind of enough to write me back with the follow to clarify:

“Rent Clicks approaches NARPM each year to secure the sponsorship so I am not sure what you call “first right of refusal.” Since Rent Clicks is always the first company to approach us to reserve their sponsorship spot, NARPM has never had to even consider a “first right of refusal.” All of NARPM affiliates are important to the organization and that is why we are continually evaluating our sponsorship levels and looking for new opportunities for companies from the smallest affiliate to companies the size of the new Rentals.com.”