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I was just reading the thread about the NAR dues increase and couldn't help but thinking that the dues increase may actually be a good thing. Now these are hard times without a doubt and a significant dues increase by NAR was absolutely an unconscionable thing for an organization to do to its members given current economic conditions and I don't want to pay the extra money any more than the next guy but . . . I think there may be a silver lining.
When I look around my town there are SIXTY THREE real estate offices listed in MLS (and a few more non-member offices are out there I'm sure). Granted, most of these offices have 1-4 agents, but some have as many as 30 so there must be somewhere around 150 agents in town. It's not a huge town. Last year there were 342 MLS transactions which works out to about 2 transactions per agent. As in most towns a few of the agents do a significantly higher amount of transactions than everyone else leaving the rest of the agents in town to fight over the remaining scraps. Some agents do absolutely no business and some do millions and millions of dollars in sales. This leads me to one and only one conclusion . . . there are way more real estate agents than there is demand or need for such a number.
Hopefully, this dues increase will shake out some of the less active Realtors. I know in my state they just passed a law increasing the amount of pre-licensing class time one must endure before taking the real estate exam and the continuing education requirement for licensees is going up as well which will only shake even more of the non-performers out of this profession. For years, the barriers to entry in this industry have been so incredibly low that the population of Realtors has become more than the industry can bear. We need to thin the herd!
Granted there will always be the haves and have nots in this industry but it would be nice to have a healthy middle class as well.
In my tri state area (PA, NJ & DE), there are 28,000 agents just in Trend MLS (there are 2 other smaller MLS providers as well). Down from 32K in the past 4 years. But still..talk about too many agents!
I am in DC Metro area specifically in Northern Virginia. Our association as close in 10K members not including other close by small association and the larger association of DC/MD/VA
Location: Mokelumne Hill, CA & El Pescadero, BCS MX.
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Originally Posted by MikePRU
I was just reading the thread about the NAR dues increase and couldn't help but thinking that the dues increase may actually be a good thing. Now these are hard times without a doubt and a significant dues increase by NAR was absolutely an unconscionable thing for an organization to do to its members given current economic conditions and I don't want to pay the extra money any more than the next guy but . . . I think there may be a silver lining.
For those who dropped their NAR membership like I did, it doesn't mean that we are leaving the real estate business.
There are 300 agents in my MLS and last year maybe 85 did enough business to stay afloat. I assume the rest have another means of income.
I think we are down to about 1500 from the peak of 2100 or so. The average agent last year did 3.5 transactions. Yep...too many agents. We only need about 1/4-1/3 of the agents that are still active in my area.
I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who thinks this way. If it's harder to become (and stay) a licensed real estate professional not only will it shake out the less sucessful agents but also will discourage "hobbyists" from dabbling in the profession.
I think the op was referring to Realtors, some just dropped the NAR membership, and not their state license.
I just got a contract in this morning on a non realtor licensee, I sent it over to the seller and he flat out rejected the offer. Good for him, half the blanks didn't say N/A and his additional provisions calling for a separate deed for the garage space was amusing. This house has an attached garage, one not deeded by the HOA.
I shake my head sometimes that these people graduated pre-license school.
I think the op was referring to Realtors, some just dropped the NAR membership, and not their state license.
I just got a contract in this morning on a non realtor licensee, I sent it over to the seller and he flat out rejected the offer. Good for him, half the blanks didn't say N/A and his additional provisions calling for a separate deed for the garage space was amusing. This house has an attached garage, one not deeded by the HOA.
I shake my head sometimes that these people graduated pre-license school.
But considering that most MLS's require membership it really is the same question. Too many real estate agents, REALTOR® or not.
I would agree that there are likely too many real estate agents just about everywhere. However much we would like to thin out the low performers it would leave still leave the bad agents. Those agents always manage to hang on somehow or another. There is probably no way to rid ourselves of those agents.
I think that the low requirements aren't a bad thing. It gives a lot of people who could never get into another profession due to not being able to hack college or whatever. Some of the best agents are those people and they would be blocked from real estate for no good reason.
Having high "standards" doesn't ensure good people. Just look at the lawyer business. There are a lot of bad lawyers, from "good" schools.
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