My friend sent me an email from his agent that sounds a bit fishy to me, and I wanted feedback about whether this might be a California thing, some NAR thing or some legal thing I'm not familiar with (though I'm not looking for legal advice, of course).

As far as joint ownership this NAR article explains the differences in different forms of dual ownership pretty well.My advice would be to really think long and hard about your relationship with this person.

I think NAR and MOVE have to make some kind of a "MOVE" (pun intended) to stay competitive.Either way I think Zillow, or Trulia or the combination is destined to be acquired by someone else, such as a Google and become just a specialized layer inside Google Maps, ala Google Homes.

You will need to join no matter the brokerage you join as well as CAR and likely NAR.  

NAR Seller Financing http://www.realtor.org/field-guides/field-guide-to-seller-financing And Bill Gulley always has advice on seller financing.

And this is the way NAR likes -- they want everyone to think that buying/selling a house is a complicated process that requires professional hand-holding.As Jon pointed out above (and this is the quintessential example in the online world), travel used to be the same way.

The most recent NAR stats state that REALTOR assisted home sales net an average of 30% more on price than FSBO home sales.

I'm shocked that this third rate company has not been shut down by NAR or the any of the other regulatory agencies.

I don't for one minute consider the NAR an unbiased, factal source.

Getting the very minimum licensing will be costly and take along time to implement, and there are MLS fees, Association fees, NAR fees plus whatever your state association requires.