Damage from the nation’s slumping housing market is evident throughout the economy and permeates financial markets. Add real estate agents to the growing list of victims, although they know few tears will be shed for them.
The National Association of Realtors expects membership rolls to decline this year for the first time in a decade. The group ended 2006 with nearly 1.4 million members — almost double the roughly 716,000 it had in 1997 — but expects 2007 to close with 1.3 million, a drop of more than 4 percent.
Agents’ ranks continued to rise even after the market began to cool about two years ago because of the 18-month lag between the downturn in sales and membership, says NAR spokesman Walter Molony.
Trade groups in two of the hardest-hit states — California and Florida — also forecast membership drops. The California Association of Realtors is expecting its first decline since 1997, forecasting a year-end tally of 185,000 members compared with more than 199,000 last year. The Florida Association of Realtors currently has about 154,000 members compared with more than 161,000 last year at this time, but expects flat membership by year-end.
Not to rob graves, but people working — successfully — in bigger brokerages should be attentive to the folks who are leaving the business. Not only will they have stuff to sell, like half-price lockboxes, but they are possessed of warm networks that will need to be serviced in the coming years. Not everyone can make a living selling real estate, but just about everybody likes to live indoors. If you can be the Realtor-of-choice for your former colleagues, you can work with a lot of people who will come to you pre-sold. And while I would never, ever suggest that anyone violate state laws by paying referral fees to formerly-licensed former-Realtors, it remains that gratitude is simply a matter of graciousness — and gift cards come in many denominations.
Technorati Tags: real estate, real estate marketing
Michael Cook says:
Does this imply that there are less realtors out their or that some realtors are simply not joining the NAR. I dont know how much it costs and I am not quite sure of the benefits, but is this a logical place to cut costs in a down market if you are a real estate agent? I am asking out of curiousity.
August 22, 2007 — 2:42 pm
Greg Swann says:
Not all real estate licensees are Realtors, but all Realtors are members of the National Association of Realtors. Realtor is a made-up word signifying paid-up membership. The article refers to the long-anticipated decline in the number of members of the NAR. NAR membership almost always implies MLS membership, so it’s virtually impossible to practice residential real estate representation without belonging to the NAR. Members leaving the NAR are almost always leaving the real estate business entirely.
How much does it cost to join? A lot. It is plausible to me that, in reality, a Realtor is a self-selected cow that is intended to be milked to death by brokers and the NAR. In this respect, the Realtors you see speaking up here are the anomalies, relatively successful practitioners amidst a massively overwhelming majority of people who fail to make a living selling real estate.
August 22, 2007 — 3:10 pm
Ryan H says:
You make some good points here Greg, in regard to befriending those agents leaving the business and working their SOI. I recently picked up 15 barely used signs at a ridiculous price, from an agent who left. I’m hoping to get some cheap lockboxes soon too 🙂
August 22, 2007 — 4:28 pm
Sock Puppet says:
In many States the local Realtor Assoc essentially owns the MLS and you have to become a dues paying Realtor in order to gain access to the MLS.
August 22, 2007 — 4:48 pm
JeffX says:
1,300,000
X $94
———–
$122,000,000
Thats just NAR’s fee
California Association of Realtors:
185,000 Members
X $135
———
$24,975,000
Plus your local level Asociations
Plus your MLS fees
Plus you can make other various ‘donations’, if you like *wink wink*
‘a Realtor is a self-selected cow that is intended to be milked to death by brokers and the NAR.’
They’ve do serve some mmmm mmmm good Kool-Aid though.
August 22, 2007 — 7:00 pm
J. Ferris says:
There would be no sweeter day than the day I could fully utilize the MLS without being apart of the local board of Realtors and NAR. What a disaster NAR is.
August 22, 2007 — 8:12 pm
Dave Barnes says:
few tears will be shed for them
No kidding.
August 22, 2007 — 9:00 pm
Phil Hoover says:
But, you are all forgetting that “it’s a great time to buy a house!” 🙂
The sooner we lose the cheerleaders, the better off we will be.
They make fools of all of us.
It’s the client’s decision; not ours or NAR’s!
August 22, 2007 — 10:28 pm
Eric says:
I admit I giggled a little bit at this. I wonder how the NAR will spin it? That they’re focused and dedicated to a quality and not quantity approach?
August 24, 2007 — 11:43 am
Eric Blackwell says:
@Eric-they will simply spin it that people have gotten in and now the market it tougher and it is a cyclical thing.
@Greg Swann-spot on. REALTORS are self selected cows. Great way of putting it. And MOST are not making a killing at it.
We can all be mad at NAR and REALTOR.com and whoever, but the REAL money part of this post IMO is the call to befriend those leaving the business and extract their sphere and relationships. Those referrals are invaluable.
That spurred some thoughts on my part for the REALTORS in our office.
Thanks
August 25, 2007 — 12:58 pm
Sock Puppet says:
In some states Realtor aren’t “self-selected cows”. If the board of realtors owns your statewide MLS and requires you to have a membership in both then it’s politely phrased as “a cost of doing business”.
August 26, 2007 — 7:36 am