When Century 21 broker-owner Bill Lublin started his real estate career in 1971, sales associates couldn’t be Realtors. The now-broker had to wait until 1973 to join the National Association of Realtors, after a rule change finally let him follow the lead of his mentors, who proudly served in the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors and the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors.
Bill Lublin
“Before [1973], it was the broker who was a Realtor, and everybody that worked for him could say they worked for Ray Richmond Realtors or Citywide Realtors, whatever the name of the company was,” he said. “But in ’73, you were allowed to have your own membership, and I joined right away because I wanted to be seen as something more than a salesperson. I wanted to be seen in a more professional manner.”
Lublin jumped in right away, joining GPAR’s anti-graffiti committee. The group decided to host an art contest for Philadelphia students, hoping it would give them another outlet for their creativity. Lublin said he told his broker, Ray Richmond, he was nervous about disappointing his fellow Realtors and the students who’d participate in the contest, not wanting to mar his or the Association’s reputation.
“He said, ‘Just go down there, try not to break anything, and leave it better when you leave than it was when you got there,'” he said, noting that GPAR’s anti-graffiti efforts were a success. “I did that, and I was hooked.”
Fifty-three years later, the script has flipped.
Whereas Lublin and his colleagues were chomping at the bit to join NAR, a growing faction of Realtors now fights for the freedom to leave the Association behind.
This is the third installment of a three-part series examining the National Association of Realtors, the American Real Estate Association and their roles in an industry navigating immense change.
Making a choice
NAR has faced at least eight lawsuits over its three-way agreement, which requires members to also join a local and state association to access the multiple listing service (MLS). So far, the Association has won six of those complaints, with the remaining two still pending.
While the Association continues to defend the agreement, it did repeal a rule that required membership to access Realtor-affiliated multiple listing services, putting the decision in the hands of local Associations. A handful of local groups — most notably Phoenix Realtors, which battled with NAR over the rule in the year leading up to the change — have released non-member MLS access products.
Florida, Georgia, Alabama and California all have state laws that require MLSs to offer non-member access. NorthstarMLS, SPAAR, Unlock MLS and Doorify MLS are other examples of MLSs that have non-member subscription options like Phoenix Realtors.
Russ Cofano
“[NAR] will have to be forced into change,” Alloy Advisors co-founder Russ Cofano, a former state association CEO and industry relations executive, told Inman. “And that scenario is when membership becomes optional because today, it’s not. They say it is, but it’s not in most areas of the country. And I think that day is coming, when an individual Realtor at the local level will be able to make some decisions when they get into the business.”
“They can say, ‘I’m going to join the MLS because I need it for my business. But I’m not sure I need the Realtor association. And I need to be sold on the value of the Realtor association,'” he added.
An Inman survey revealed the extent of agent disillusionment, with 55 percent of respondents saying they’d rather be part of no association — NAR, the American Real Estate Association or otherwise.
Many respondents found it difficult to recognize the value of Realtor associations, with 74 percent of agents believing the groups had little to no value (44 percent) or being unsure about their worth (30 percent). This cohort of agents said the system benefits neither members nor consumers (34 percent) or delivers only for consumers at the expense of Realtor members (11 percent).
Only 26 percent of survey takers said Realtor associations deliver for the industry, with NAR’s political lobbying power (36 percent) and Code of Ethics (32 percent) cited as the greatest value, despite complaints about how the Code is enforced (30 percent).
Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Northwest Home Team Designated Broker Jessica Poulos has faced this reality twice, weighing the decision to leave NAR with 76 agents under her leadership.
The first was in the aftermath of NAR’s buyer-broker commission lawsuits, and the second, when Compass International Holdings, which purchased Anywhere and its portfolio of companies including BHGRE, offered complimentary American Real Estate Association (ARA) membership to all of its company-owned affiliates.
Jessica Poulos
Poulos said both meetings revolved around one question: “Do we want to stay within NAR or pull away from it?”
The conversations that followed were a thoughtful tug-of-war, with her and the agents peeling back the layers of NAR’s successes and failures. Although they were upset with how NAR handled the commission lawsuits, the benefits — political advocacy, legal support and the Code of Ethics — won out in the end.
“It’s really easy to get your license and then just jump right into selling, but understanding why we do things, and understanding the market, and understanding the legalities of things — that’s something I really value with Washington Realtors, which obviously is a part of NAR,” she said. “I do think there are flaws, as with any organization. And when an organization like NAR faces losing a lot of members, you’re forced to get better. I think they’re working on doing that.”
Value unarticulated
As for what better looks like, Poulos said the first step is restoring the value of the Realtor name.
“I remember when I first started in real estate 22 years ago, having ‘R’ next to your name was a bigger deal than it is today,” she said. “And I think bringing that back, to where people want to work with you because they know that you’re a Realtor, is important. We’ve had to do damage control with everything around the commission lawsuits, and that’s a bummer.”
“But now we need to re-teach the consumer there’s a difference between an agent and a Realtor, and it matters,” she added. “And then I think it’s also about educating the agents, too. Especially brand new agents. We say, ‘I’m going to onboard you, here’s what you need to do, and you also need to pay your Realtor dues.’ But that’s not enough.”
Kendall Bonner
EXp Realty team leader, Inman contributor and industry strategist Kendall Bonner echoed Poulos, saying that the breakdown between NAR and its membership starts before an agent becomes a Realtor. The decision to join NAR, she said, has unfortunately been framed as a task, rather than an informed decision.
“I think the reason why people don’t appreciate [Realtor membership] is that it was never delivered to them as a value proposition,” she said. “Brokers and MLSs and associations have treated all of these things like steps instead of saying, ‘You have a choice. You can choose to do this or choose not to do this. Here’s what you stand to gain or lose.'”
Bonner also said Realtor associations have failed to explain the relationship among the national, state and local levels and Realtor-associated MLSs. Before she got more involved with her state and local associations, Bonner said she didn’t fully grasp how each level worked together.
“For example, even just your MLS and your local association, right? A lot of people will credit the MLS for things a local association does, and vice versa, because they don’t understand the distinction between the groups,” she said. “And they don’t understand that local associations and MLSs don’t do everything the same way, and so they’ll hear things and think it applies to them, and it doesn’t.”
“I think if [membership was] approached a better way, and agents recognized they had a choice to make and understood how the system works, there would probably be quite a bit more appreciation,” she added. “The value never gets articulated, and value unarticulated is value unappreciated.”
The two brokers aren’t off track in their observations. Two pillars in NAR’s three-year Strategic Plan focus on partnering “with state and local associations to build a common understanding around roles and responsibilities” and on “building a core brand identity that differentiates Realtors in the market.” The Association said it’s well on its way to delivering change, already starting two-thirds of the 75 projects in the blueprint.
Poulos and Bonner said the value struggle would likely ease if Realtor associations and Realtor-affiliated MLSs proactively began consolidating. MLS and association consolidation was a major talking point at Inman Connect New York in February, with Canopy Multiple Listing Service CEO Anne Marie DeCatsye saying the industry’s 500 MLSs should be whittled down to 25 or less.
“I think that a lot of the smaller associations and, you know, institutions, we’ll call them, are at risk for being outperformed in terms of value delivery because they just don’t have the funds; they may not have the resources, things of that nature,” Bonner said. “And so, I think when you can consolidate under the right alignments, then that can give the organization stability, sustainability and consistency, which benefits members.”
Amit Kulkarni
Cofano and his business partner, Amit Kulkarni, who’s written several recent Inman op-eds about the association system, both said consolidation is key to saving the association system, but that the fight to get it down will be less about “technical limitations” and more about “willpower limitations.”
“I don’t see a whole bunch of change happening because there’s no incentive for these systems to change,” Kulkarni said. “MLS CEOs get paid a lot of money. Who’s going to give that up? That’s a tough ask for this industry’s incumbents. So it’s about willpower and skill.”
He added, “Who’s willing to stand up and do what’s right? Build the products, technology and systems that help Realtors deliver value to consumers. There’s a lot of opportunity to innovate. Who has the willpower?”
Poulos said she hopes Realtor associations make the right decision, for the sake of the Realtors who put their time — and funds — into the group.
“It’s actually expensive to be a Realtor. You have your MLS dues, you have your licensing dues, and that doesn’t even guarantee that you’ll have clients or an edge with consumers,” she said. “It is time to consolidate to make sure that we’re not losing some of the message and some of the meaning [of Realtor membership]. It’s where we’re at.”
Taking the steering wheel
Although NAR holds most of the responsibility in building this new era, Lublin, Poulos and Bonner said Realtors must remember their collective power and be unafraid to use it. However, to use that power, more Realtors have to dedicate time to getting involved.
“I think that in local, state and national organizations I’ve ever been involved in, communication and member engagement are always the hottest topics. It’s a real challenge,” Lublin said. “But I think there are a lot of brokers who are focused on their business and not on the industry. I don’t say this to judge them, but I think some people are so busy and so transactionally focused that they miss the opportunity to learn more about the industry.”
Lublin then went into the history of the Greater Philadelphia Association of Realtors and the Pennsylvania Association of Realtors, noting how each group successfully advocated for change in their market, whether it was getting refunds for homeowners who’d been improperly charged transfer taxes or cracking down on wholesalers who were targeting lower-income communities. That’s what Realtors, he said, are capable of when they come together.
“You’re part of a community. And good community members contribute to the community,” he said. “Somebody needs to advocate for the real estate professional. Somebody needs to advocate for the consumer.”
Bonner echoed Lublin’s sentiments in August in a LinkedIn post about Florida Realtors’ annual convention, urging her followers — especially those who’ve complained about NAR — to get involved in their state and local Realtor associations.
“When people complain or are frustrated, I think part of the reason why they don’t feel heard is that they’re not participating and getting involved, and I think for me, that was the message behind my post,” she said. “I see the same people year over year over year because they’re the ones who care, and that’s fair.”
“But I’m a fan of bringing new voices into spaces,” she added. “It’s not that consistent voices aren’t good, but I also think we need a rise of new leaders and new voices and new messages, and that’s what’s really important right now.”
Lublin, Poulos and Bonner all said they see the Association landscape changing, as new entrants, primarily ARA, aim to make their mark on the industry. However, they asked their fellow Realtors to approach their decision — whether it’s holding dual memberships, leaving NAR and joining ARA, or opting out of associations altogether — with clear guiding principles at the forefront.
“I would ask questions like, ‘What is this particular organization’s public policy and policy positions? Does that align with who I am and what I believe? Am I willing to give back, support it and grow it, understanding that no organization is ever perfect? What are my expectations? And how much am I willing to do to make sure those expectations are met?'”
Read Part 1: ARA has the stage. What will it take to stay in the spotlight?
Read Part 2: NAR has written the roadmap. Are Realtors down for the ride?
Inman Data Editor Daniel Houston contributed to this report.
