As the American Real Estate Association announces new partnerships with some of the nation’s biggest brokerage brands, new survey results suggest its chief competitor may have more to lose than this upstart has to gain.
Agents are far more likely to say they’d drop all association memberships rather than join the ARA if it were totally up to them, according to an analysis of the latest Inman Intel Index survey results.
And as more brokerages entertain partnerships with the upstart challenger looking to unseat the incumbent National Association of Realtors, the firewall protecting the leading trade group may weaken — but possibly without a correspondingly large increase in ARA membership, the results suggest.
These results reflect a snapshot in time that mostly precedes when agents at Compass-owned brokerages were made aware of their complimentary ARA memberships. However, they reveal the shape of how these deliberations might play out at the individual brokerage level, as long as agents and brokerage leaders maintain their current stances.
Read the analysis in the full report.
The broader brokerage perspective
After partnering with The Agency, Douglas Elliman and REMAX, the ARA in late July landed its biggest fish yet: a deal to offer complimentary memberships to Compass-owned brokerages.
But agents at partner brokerages have to choose to activate their complimentary memberships.
And at the ground level, leaders at various firms have given little consideration to joining an alternative to NAR.
- 52 percent of brokerage leaders surveyed in July said they would either require or encourage their agents to be members of a Realtor association, if the choice were totally up to their brokerage.
- Another 24 percent of leaders surveyed said they would leave membership entirely to the agent in this scenario.
- Only 6 percent of leaders surveyed said they would encourage agents to consider ARA as an alternative to a Realtor association.
Of the 136 brokerage leaders who took July’s survey, only 19 said that they were either already affiliated with ARA, or were open to it or actively exploring it.
For these 19 leaders at least, the approach toward agent membership in a Realtor association looks very different than it does elsewhere.
- At brokerages actively engaging with the ARA, 10 of 19 leader respondents said they would leave Realtor association membership entirely to the agent.
- Only 4 of these leaders said they would require or encourage Realtor association membership.
While this respondent group is small, the results provide a limited window into the mentality of these leaders: At brokerages engaging seriously with a competitor to NAR, at this early stage in time, leadership is not likely to take the stance that their agents should be members of the industry’s largest trade group.
And that stance — whether in the form of a mandate, or simply an expectation of their agents — is one of the key factors that many agents say prevents them from leaving their Realtor associations.
It all hinges on agents
A month after the partnership with REMAX was announced, few REMAX agents surveyed by Inman actually had activated their ARA memberships.
- Of the 19 self-identified REMAX agents who responded to the survey in late July, none had yet activated their complimentary membership.
- In fact, nearly half of these REMAX agents said they hadn’t heard of ARA before the survey asked them about it, despite the partnership announcement a month earlier.
Around the same time, the ARA reported its official membership tally had reached 30,000, and more REMAX and Compass agents have had time to activate their complimentary memberships since then.
But the dynamics here illustrate something that holds up in broader groups of agents, and leadership, at this early stage of ARA’s growth efforts.
As part of the July survey, Inman asked agents whether they would rather belong to NAR, ARA, both or neither, setting aside current membership requirements in their market or at their brokerage.
- Only 30 percent of agent respondents said they would want to belong to a Realtor association, including 6 percent who said they would be members of both a Realtor association and ARA.
- Almost as many respondents — 24 percent of agents surveyed — said they would prefer to be members of no association at all.
In fact, the largest response group by far said they were unsure what they would prefer in this scenario.
- 40 percent of agent respondents expressed they were unsure what they would do if offered the choice.
- 4 percent said this question doesn’t apply in their market.
These results suggest that various requirements — whether in the market or in the brokerage — are a major factor in the minds of many agents who would otherwise consider canceling their membership.
It falls well short, however, of suggesting that agents disaffected with NAR are rushing to join its competitor.
- Only 2 percent of agent respondents said they would be part of ARA but not NAR, if the decision were left totally to them.
As ARA courts more brokerages frustrated with NAR, the results suggest their leadership will be less likely to push agents to remain members of Realtor associations. It’s unclear whether this is a result of closer alignment with a competitor association or if brokerage leaders willing to entertain the ARA are already more hands-off in this area.
But the survey results are clearer on one point. The absence of mandates or pressure makes agents less likely to want to be part of NAR. But for now, it’s not driving them into the arms of this particular competitor.
Methodology notes: This month’s Inman Intel Index survey ran from July 21-28, and received 635 responses. The entire Inman reader community was invited to participate, and a rotating, randomized selection of community members was prompted to participate by email. Users responded to a series of questions related to their self-identified corner of the real estate industry — including real estate agents, brokerage leaders, lenders and proptech entrepreneurs. Results reflect the opinions of the engaged Inman community, which may not always match those of the broader real estate industry. This survey is conducted monthly.
