When it comes to National Association of Realtors dues, Boston’s commercial real estate brokers don’t.
Reflecting discontent with the services provided by the national trade group, the Greater Boston Real Estate Board’s Commercial Leasing and Investment Committee has opted to pull out of NAR and its Bay State affiliate, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, for the coming year and likely beyond. The move, which has even caught some CLIC members by surprise, was largely made because the two Realtor organizations focus most of their attention on the residential market, 1999 CLIC President Robert M. DeLaney told Banker & Tradesman last week.
It just didn’t seem we were getting value for our dues dollar, DeLaney said. It’s a significant amount that sort of goes out the window, and it’s hard to know exactly what we get for that.
CLIC will be sending out annual bills this week to its estimated 335 members, who pay their NAR/MAR stipend through GBREB. According to GBREB Chief Operating Officer Carolyn Sidor, area commercial Realtors pay $213 to GBREB, $110 to MAR and $79 to NAR. The exported NAR funds, DeLaney said, tend to bolster residential legislation, programs and educational efforts.
It’s a very unanimous feeling among the CLIC board members that commercial brokers are underserved by NAR, DeLaney said.
Sidor said that any commercial Realtor who wishes to remain affiliated with the state and local groups can still use GBREB as its local branch. Those who wish to protect NAR-affiliated professional designations such as the Society of Industrial and Office Realtors and the Counselors of Real Estate can continue to pay their dues through GBREB, for example, said Sidor, who added that GBREB supports CLIC’s action.
Its one of those cases where the members have made a decision, and we have to listen to what the members want to do, Sidor said. As a trade association, we have to be responsive to what our members want.
MAR officials did not respond to the situation by press deadline, but a NAR spokesman insisted that commercial Realtors are being taken seriously by the association’s leadership. Donn Raab admitted that commercial brokers across the country have previously raised the issue of payback, acknowledging that they kind of feel lost in the mix.
We understand there have been frustrations all along, he said.
Despite that, Raab stressed that significant steps are being taken to overcome the negative image. NAR’s incoming president, Dennis Cronk, is a commercial broker, while Raab noted that his group sponsored a commercial-related conference in September with the Urban Land Institute and hopes to have more such programs in the future. In addition, NAR recently interviewed officials at 13 commercial real estate firms to gauge their input and concerns, while Raab said the association has also designed its Web site to better accommodate that facet of its membership.
It’s a major initiative, Raab said in a phone interview from NAR’s Chicago headquarters. NAR is really trying hard to respond to the rap that [commercial Realtors] don’t get anything for their membership dues … Its something we have taken very seriously.
NAR was unaware of the CLIC move, Raab said, adding that he had not heard of any similar defections in the past. Others, however, said a New York branch oriented towards commercial brokers pulled out about 10 years ago, although specific details were unavailable. About 10 percent of the association’s 750,000 members are commercial brokers, Raab estimated.
CLIC board member and past President Kathleen C. Doyle said she believes the new arrangement will give the GBREB entity increased revenues to serve its members. Already, she said, CLIC has retained commercial specialist Michael Lipsey for a half-day program later this winter. The program on advanced sales and leasing will be funded partly through money saved from not paying NAR/MAR, she said.
I think it’s a great move, and I think its going to benefit our commercial real estate brokers tremendously, said Doyle, a principal with Thompson Doyle Hennessey & Everest in Boston. It gives us the ability to make a greater local impact.
Lenny Owens, who will assume the CLIC reins this month as 2000 president, said the decision to focus on local legislation and focused programs reflects incoming GBREB President Ronald Druker’s hopes for a rejuvenated, unified board that will focus on lobbying efforts at the city and state level. The 6,000-plus member GBREB has five separate divisions, including the Real Estate Finance Association, the Residential Housing Association and the Building Owners and Managers Association, all of which are expected to become more targeted towards local activities.
It allows us to redirect our resources in a way that will allow us to better serve our members, Owens said. It was not an easy decision, but one at this point that seems to make a lot of sense.
‘Not Interested’
Certainly CLIC has been active since its inception more than a decade ago. Among its biggest coups was helping, through GBREB, to alter new continuing education legislation for real estate professionals to provide for commercial courses. Had CLIC not been involved, DeLaney said, the courses likely would have targeted only residential issues.
I don’t sell single-family homes, DeLaney said. We’re not interested in continuing education that deals with radon or UFFI insulation.
Indeed, the CE courses for commercial brokers are programmed and held by CLIC. Doyle herself just completed her 12 hours of required credits with classes on the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Chapter 91 environmental regulations that waterfront developers must adhere to.
They were very cogent, useful [topics], but if CLIC wasn’t involved, it would have been all residential, and that’s not a good use of anyone’s time, Doyle said.
DeLaney said he expects most CLIC members will become aware of the change when they receive their bills. Although at least one CLIC member contacted voiced concerns about breaking ties with NAR, Owens said he believes it will prove to be a popular move for most, adding that there is also the option of returning to NAR/MAR if the associations are able to prove they are relevant to the commercial industry.
If it makes sense for us to rejoin in the future, we will look at it, but at this point, that does not seem very likely, he said. We really do think this is the right answer.