How Brokerages Can Best Leverage NAR

This is the fifth blog post in a series of ten that covers the trends that will shape the residential real estate industry in 2019 and beyond according to the publication, Swanepoel Trends Report 2019.  The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this post belong solely to the author, and not necessarily to the author’s employer or the publication cited.

Just a quick caveat before you read this post; I am acting Secretary for the Lancaster County Association of REALTORS and sit on their Board of Directors. So some could take a look at this post and say I’m biased in my point of view. I get it. Having said that, here we go – – –

The National Association of REALTORS (NAR) is over 1.3 million members strong and has been around a long time. Anytime you’re dealing with a body this size, your decisions will second-guessed by a lot of people. Even if it is just 1% of the members that are disgruntled, that tally comes to over 10,000 people. When was the last time one of your decisions was critiqued by that many people?

So what exactly does NAR do?

If you ask ten random REALTORS this question, I guarantee that close to seventy percent will have no idea. That’s a problem and perhaps one that I’ll deal with in another blog post in the future.

Well here’s the short answer; A LOT.

Let’s start with where they bring the most value to the table according to the Swanepoel Trends Report:

Multiple Listing Services (MLS) – This is probably the most recognized benefit that we have because most agents use it all the time. Most MLS’s across the country are owned, or partially owned, by their local association.