In 2023 the median number of homes each Realtor sold was 2. Yup that’s right 2. Some folks are claiming that Realtors who only sold 2 houses last year are part time real estate agents,

Seriously? For one thing home sales were down in 2023 and the number of Realtors was up.

I hate to set the record straight but it is possible to be a full time Realtor and only sell a few houses? By full time I mean at least 35 hours a week.

My question is: How many houses does a real estate agent have to sell to be considered full time? 

OK I have a second question: Is full time for real estate agents measured in hours worked per week or the number of sales a year? 

OK I have a third question: Does the dollar value of a real estate agents transactions make a difference when deciding if an agent is full time? 

Real estate agents have to prove their worth every day and those who can not “articulate their value” went out of business a long time ago.

With more agents than ever and fewer home sales the competition is fierce. It is far easier to sell a house than it is to sign a new client.

Buyer’s agents have been proving their value for decades in an era where many believe that finding a house for sale on the internet is all that it takes to become a homeowner.

So listen up. You can all take your stupid advice and apply it to your own business because if there are fewer real estate agents due attrition there are a whole lot of people who are going to be making less money or no money at all.

All who live off funds from real estate agents, brokers and real estate companies had best get busy articulating their value. Vendors will need to provide value immediately. Real estate agents know how to articulate their value. Learn from them instead of preaching to them.

I am not a brand. My face belongs to me, not to any brand.

We live in a culture that is all about money yet I am not all about money.  My face isn’t about money either.

There isn’t anything authentic about a person who is a brand and who hides behind a brand.

Sometimes I attend social events to interact with others. It isn’t about prospecting and it isn’t about money. Relationships are not about ROI.

Being a brand must be exhausting.

Being myself comes naturally.

Looking back over my checkered career I realize that I have spent way too much of my life working. Far too much time thinking about work. An enormous amount of time that I can never get back trying to be the kind of person that people might want to work with.

I am not a brand. I don’t want to be a brand and I don’t want a personal brand. I don’t have to be a brand and you can’t make me. I am better than a brand. I am a person.

People who get involved unconditionally support the National Association and defend it from any criticism. NAR knows how to, recruit,  groom, and convert.

. . but none of that matters.

Now I understand. If I had joined a committee NAR would not have been sued for billions. As a member, I am being sued too.

If I had volunteered there would be no lawsuits. There would be no court-ordered judgments.

If I had volunteered NAR would have a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion. If only I had volunteered. I could have changed everything. Everything would be different today.

Current volunteers need me to come in and take over now before things get worse yet I won’t volunteer because I can not.

All I can do is say that I am sorry. If only I had stepped in. Things would be so different today.

It is women who sell real estate. It is women who make up the majority of NAR members. It is up to women to change the industry.

Change isn’t happening because some mightly male leader stepped forward it is because women came forward and spoke up.

Women have started to change the industry by complaining about sexual harassment and discrimination.

Women reporters are changing the industry through their investigative reporting on NAR and the real estate industry.

The real estate industry does not need another organization run by men. Women need to lead the industry.

Thanks to all of the women who spoke up. You are my heroes.

Before the NAR most people did not care where they lived. In fact, at one point in North America, people lived in caves, huts, or tents.

NAR continues to promote homeownership even though there is a shortage of houses and they are far too expensive. The demand is too high and the supply is too low.

The NAR could help ease demand by promoting the idea that people do not need houses. They can and do live in tents and could live in caves or huts or in cars, vans or campers.

Homeownership was a wonderful idea back in its day but times have changed. Without NAR promoting home ownership, demand would go down and so would prices. Housing could be affordable again.

Merry Christmas. I am looking forward to sharing more stories like this in 2024. I hope you will stop by and read the weenie.

The values are reinforced each year when the yearly awards and lists are published.

Awards should go to the women who dared to speak out about sexual harassment and NAR and at EXP and everywhere else women stood up to the patriarchy. It takes courage to stand up and speak out. It takes an enormous amount of courage to speak to a reporter and to have your story published for all to see.

Those women are my heroes. Their names should be at the top of the list because they did something this year that matters.  They are the best of the best.

There will be a diverse list of “top” people. The diversity is mostly in the style of a necktie or if they wear a tie at all.  There will be special categories for women because even though women dominate the real estate industry, we are not who the male deciders consider being “top”.

On the one hand real estate professionals like to paint a picture that they work hard and help people buy houses but the awards usually have to do with how much money an agent made or how many rich people he or she helped.

If I gave out the awards things would be different.

There would be an award for the agent who helped buyers use the most down payment assistance money.

The buyer’s agent who got the highest number of offers accepted that included FHA and VA financing.

An award for agents with the most diverse clientele and special awards for agents who help the rent trapped get out of the trap.

A prize for the real estate professionals and companies with the most first-generation home buyers.

Agents who made more than “X” amount while using less fossil fuel.

An extra special award to the woman who makes a decent living selling real estate while caring for children and elderly parents.

Nah the awards go to the folks who make the most money and are “all that and a bag of chips”. . . . and people wonder why the narrative is always about the real estate agent who does too little but makes too much.

Many in the industry do not understand the issue. It isn’t as much about how much Realtors are paid as it is all about how Realtors are paid. Specifically who is paying them.

According to NAR rules, home sellers have to pay buyer’s agents because to list a home for sale on the MLS, the listing agent has to promise compensation to a buyer’s agent. Realtors in most cases are forced to put any home they list for sale on the MLS. There are exceptions for large company pocket listings.

It doesn’t seem like NAR understands it either but the goal for NAR is to keep things the way they are. NAR can not change and there isn’t the smallest chance they will admit there is a better way or a different way to run organized real estate.

As for the useless advice, there is an implication that getting business working with buyers isn’t competitive and now it will be. WRONG.  The competition is fierce.

As an industry, we know how to represent home buyers. This isn’t new. Buyer representation contracts are not new either.

I find myself searching for new sources of real estate news on the internet due to being tired of reading the same tired articles about how to represent home buyers and how agents can prove their value to buyers.

Some will be told that they can not say anything while others will be told what they can say.

They go about their extremely important duties as if nothing has happened.

They lurk on social media posts and news articles and will occasionally jump in and use the gaslighting techniques that they learned in leadership school.

If that doesn’t work then they may try blaming anyone who is pointing out that there is a crisis for the crisis. We call this deflection. Rather than taking responsibility for a problem people with weak leadership skills will blame someone else.

When an organization has thousands of hard-working skilled leaders who are doing the most important work that there is we wonder how and why they can ignore the biggest crisis facing the organization that they have dedicated so much of their time and effort to.

It turns out that the people we thought were leaders and those who call themselves leaders are not leaders at all.  If they were leaders we could hold them accountable or at the very least they would come out of hiding so that we can have a conversation.

Weenie awards to all!