Can you ever have enough Realtors? Probably.
How many Realtors are too many?
That’s a question many Realtors have been asking ever since the residential real estate market began its steady slowdown in 2006. Agents worried that with membership numbers in the National Association of Realtors reaching an all-time high in October of 2006, the competition in a sluggish market would become even more intense.
Agents need not worry as much about an overpopulated industry: It looks like that October high will be the last membership record that the Realtors association will set for a long time. Ever since that month, the association’s membership numbers have been dropping.
This is good news for agents. Many of the Realtors dropping out of the business now are the ones who got into it during the residential industry’s boom times. They became what veteran agents dismissively call “order takers,” simply waiting for the multiple offers on their properties to come in. They didn’t have to worry about marketing, networking or taking the extra steps to negotiate a good price for their sellers. The market was so good, it did all this work for them.
That, of course, is no longer the case. And as selling homes becomes work again, Realtors are slowly, but steadily, dropping out of the business.
Consider these numbers: In January of 2000, membership in the National Association of Realtors stood at 756,748. That number exploded as the residential market sizzled, reaching its peak in October of 2006 when the number of Realtors in the association hit a high of more than 1.37 million.
Ever since, the numbers have been declining, with the exception of a few hiccups here and there. In September of this year, the association’s membership stood at more than 1.36 million. You can see the association’s membership numbers here if you’re interested.
More telling than this slight decline from a record high is the fact that membership numbers are no longer growing. Again, this is good news for Realtors: Who needs all that extra competition when homes aren’t selling quickly, prices are stagnant and buyers hold major advantages over sellers?
Tags: leaving-industry, NAR, number-of-realtors, residential-home-salesRelated Stories
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