JUDY MOORE
The booming real estate market in Massachusetts appears to have attracted many newcomers in recent years. Ten percent of all Bay State Realtors have entered the real estate industry in the last two years, according to a recent survey conducted for the Massachusetts Association of Realtors.
The survey, or profile, also shows that the majority of Realtors in Massachusetts are women and work for independent non-franchised real estate firms. Sixty-three percent of Realtors in Massachusetts are female, compared to 52 percent nationally. Twenty years ago, the majority of MAR members, or 53 percent, were male.
And despite company consolidation in the industry in recent years, 55 percent of MAR members work for independent firms. In 1984, 57 percent of MAR members reported working for an independent real estate firm.
As other industries were forced to lay off thousands and workers searched for new jobs, many turned to real estate believing it would be a more lucrative career path. One in five members of MAR have been in real estate for four years or less. Those statistics are prompting leaders of MAR to offer more training and guidance to the newer agents.
“We’ve got a lot of third- and fourth-career folks entering the real estate business and that’s why we’re providing extensive new agent training that will be available in the fall of 2004 for these new agents,” said MAR President Judy Moore.
MAR is planning to offer newly licensed agents up to 10 half- or full-day courses over a four- or five-week period. MAR will work with local Realtor boards to market these courses to small and mid-sized real estate companies that don’t offer their own training programs to new real estate agents.
Other Trends
While 10 percent of the state’s Realtors are new to the industry, the survey revealed that the typical Realtor has been active in real estate for a dozen years and is 51 years old. Almost all of the Realtors in the Massachusetts profile (98 percent) identified themselves as white or Caucasian. And Bay State Realtors earned a median gross personal income of $49,200 from real estate sales and related activities.
In comparison, the average Realtor nationally has been in business for 13 years, is 51 years old and has a gross personal income of $52,200.
Forty-nine percent of MAR members are sales agents and 41 percent have broker licenses. Most agents (48 percent) reported that they represent both buyers and sellers, while 11 percent practice single agency, 6 percent are exclusive buyer agents, 30 percent are exclusive seller agents and 4 percent primarily practice transactional agency.
Nationally, half of all Realtors practice both buyer agency and seller agency, according to the National Association of Realtors’ member survey profile.
MAR is following trends found in the NAR survey. While NAR’s membership has ballooned to 962,000 with industry newcomers accounting for three-fourths of the membership increase, MAR’s membership has also grown about 20 percent since the beginning of the decade to almost 18,500 members. That’s the highest level since 1989 when it had over 19,000 members, according to MAR.
Aglaia Pikounis may be reached at apikounis@thewarrengroup.com.
