realestating

2023 DMAR Member Profile | Report by NAR

The National Association of REALTORS® has released reports on who members are and the business they are conducting dating back more than five decades. Each year the report is released in varying and unique circumstances.

While the report provides timelines of how experiences and transactions have changed, it is also important to remember it is a snapshot of that period of time. The last year, 2022, was a divided year in the real estate market.

At the beginning of 2022, inventory levels dropped to the lowest recorded since 1999 as home buyers entered the market at a frenzied pace to lock in historically low interest rates. By Autumn of 2022, mortgage interest rates topped seven percent, putting a damper on real estate sales activity. Home buyers who had searched for a home in Spring and were outbid, were suddenly pushed to the sidelines due to housing affordability concerns.

Despite the rise in mortgage interest rates, home prices continued to rise, pricing out even more potential consumers. While there has been a slight increase in housing inventory, at affordable price points buyers have struggled to find a home. This years’ report reflects the experience of REALTORS® through a roller coaster of a year and into a more balanced market in 2023.

In 2022, the rise of new members in the National Association of REALTORS® continued to increase. Membership grew from 1.56 million at the end of 2021 to 1.58 million at the end of 2022. The median years of experience in real estate increased to 11 years. Those with two years of experience declined from 25 percent to 17 percent, while those with 16 years or more experience increased to 42 percent from 39 percent. Despite the churn and unique real estate market conditions, looking forward, 76 percent of REALTORS® are very certain they will remain in the market for two more years. Limited inventory continues to plague many housing markets in the U.S. Thirty-two percent of members who practice as brokerage specialists cited the lack of housing inventory was holding back clients from completing a transaction, while 18 percent cited housing affordability.

Due to the strong demand for housing in the first half of 2022, the typical member had 12 transaction sides. This is the same number as in 2021. The typical sales volume increased from $2.6 million to $3.4 million in 2022 as home prices increased throughout 2022. The median gross income of REALTORS® increased to $56,400 from $54,300 in 2021. New members entering the field can be noted by the differences in income by experience and function. Fifty-two percent of members who have two years or less experience made less than $10,000 in 2022 compared to 42 percent of members with more than 16 years of experience who made more than $100,000 in the same time period. REALTORS® with 16 years of experience or more had a median gross income of $80,700 compared to REALTORS® with 2 years of experience or less that had a median gross income of $9,600. REALTORS® have been impacted by higher inflation in the last year as total expenses increased to $8,210 from $6,250 in 2021. The typical member was an independent contractor affiliated with an independent company catering to local markets.

REALTORS® frequently have had careers in other fields prior to real estate, the most common being in sales and retail, followed by management, business, and financial professions. Only six percent indicated that real estate is their first career. The majority of members were women homeowners with a college education. The median age of REALTORS® was 60 in the 2023 survey.

REALTORS® consistently are ahead of the curve when it comes to technology. It is clear technology can assist home buyers when inventory is limited and buyers are moving further distances. While there are older technologies that are embraced on a daily basis, like e-mail, social media, and GPS there are also new emerging technologies such as Photofy and the use of drones. The majority of members have their own website where they promote their own property listings, but many also post information about the buying and selling process to help consumers who may just be in the research part of the process.


The National Association of Realtors® (NAR) has released reports on who members are and the business they are conducting dating back more than five decades. Each year the report is released in varying and unique circumstances. While the report provides timelines of how experiences and transactions have changed, it is also important to remember it is a snapshot of that period of time. Read More

30 Real Estate Email Subject Lines that Entice Leads

Email marketing isn’t dead, you may need to just revamp your current campaign. When buyer and seller leads are navigating through their inbox or spam folders, they’re deciding in less than seconds whether an email is worth their time. In fact, one study found 69% of email recipients report email as spam, based on the subject line alone. Email subject lines are a huge component of successful email campaigns. Subject lines, if done correctly, will entice readers to open your emails, not mark them as spam.

Use this list of Real Estate email subject lines to increase your email open rates:

 

Personalization

This list of email subject lines will help you get started with a successful campaign. Personalized subject lines are designed to make your audience think they have met you previously. When a reader thinks an email might be from someone they know, as opposed to spam, they’ll be much more likely to open it.

Quick Question
“Insert Name” Referred Me To You
Let’s Meet Up for [Insert Activity] on [Insert Date]
One More Thing
Let's get together [insert date]
I have to ask
I called, you didn’t answer
I missed you last week
You weren't home, so I left a message
How about next (MTWTFSS)?
I need your opinion
[insert name] how have you been?

Similar Interest

These subject headers will entice leads due to the fact that they are currently looking for or selling a home. Including lead’s target market within the subject line will increase their interest, as they can work with a limited number of agents serving that neighborhood.

I Heard You're Looking for a Home
What You Should Know About the [insert target market] housing market
Why other agents can’t help you
Prices are [increasing/decreasing] in [insert target market]
Up & coming neighborhoods in [insert target market]
Here’s where you should buy/sell in [insert target market]
I can help you [buy/sell your home]


Mystery

It’s true that when you’re unsure of who or where an email came from, you’ll be more likely to open it. That email could be from a former colleague, a new job opportunity or a distant friend. Ambiguous emails entice the reader to find out who the sender is.

[A Blank Subject Line]
Where do we go from here?
We don’t know what’s next
We’ve got you covered
It’s better if you didn’t know
Here's Your Private Invite

Urgency

Urgency is used in many different marketing tactics, think of 24 hour sales or limited edition items. The email header should make leads feel like they might miss out on a opportunity, if they do not open your email.

Almost
There’s still time
It begins today
It ends today
Things are heating up in [insert target market]
Why you should buy/sell now in [insert target market]

Another huge aspect of lead conversion from email campaigns is response rate. Studies show, leads are 4 times more likely to convert into a client, when you respond within the first 5 minutes. After the first 30 minutes, leads are 21 times less likely to convert.


Gen Z real-estate agents are facing the first test of their careers

  • Many Gen Z real-estate agents, who were born after 1997, started their careers in a booming market.​

  • Over 170,000 new agents joined a big realtor group, but 140,000 left during the last housing crisis.​

  • Hard times typically thin brokers' ranks, but young agents believe they'll prove their mettle.

Lately, Caleb Spears, a 25-year-old real-estate agent in Florida, has soothed some panicked colleagues on the other end of the phone.

"They will call me after a house sits for three days and be like, 'Oh my god, do you think we need a price drop?'" he told Insider.

Spears, however, remains calm. Since his brother — who was already working as an agent near the Florida resort city of Destin on the Gulf of Mexico — lured him away from a Chick-fil-A job when he was 20 years old, he's been representing buyers and sellers for six years.

According to Redfin, in June 2019, when Spears was already working, it took houses in Destin more than 78 days on market to sell, compared to a zippy 10 days in June 2021.

His fellow Gen Z agents, though, may have never witnessed slower spells.

"All they've seen is this volcanic activity in a market where everything sells over asking price in a week," Spears said. "But, historically, that's an incredibly rare instance."

The oldest members of Generation Z, who were born between 1997 and 2012, entered the workforce during unprecedented pandemic times — and real estate was no exception. As rookies became agents, home prices rose at their fastest rate in 45 years, bidding wars became commonplace, and houses flew off the shelves in days — even sight unseen.

Now, the market has shifted beneath these newbies. They're still selling houses, but at reduced prices and in longer timeframes. At best, it means real-estate agents and mortgage brokers make less money. At worst, it means firms lay off employees or they quit voluntarily during the so-called bust parts of the housing market's boom-bust cycles.

Gen Z agents told Insider that they see the current moment as an opportunity. They said they believe that if they can deepen relationships with clients offline and improve their marketing to reach more potential customers, they'll rise to the top of the industry — even in a downturn. Other people, they said, can head for the exits.

"You're not only going to survive, you're going to capture all the business all those thousands of agents would have done," Spears said.

The hot market made it easier for Gen Z real-estate agents get started

"Historically when the markets do well, more people want to give real estate a try," Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said.

An additional 170,000 agents joined the association's ranks between July 2020 and July 2022, bringing membership to an all-time high of over 1.58 million brokers nationwide. Yun said the surge even beat the association's own expectations for the period.

Take the 20-year-old Nimel Sonna, who goes by Tre and started working as an agent in Seattle in August 2020. Sonna was working for a moving company when he admired a client's house. Sonna asked the owner what he did for a living, and he answered that he was a real-estate agent.

Sonna said he feels lucky he jumped into what he called the pandemic-housing "heat wave" because it aligned with his main method of signing clients: cold calling. Early on, he got in the habit of dialing strangers to find homeowners on the fence about selling to represent or people struggling with their searches for properties to buy.

Sonna said three of his first six deals were the results of cold calls. Many of his targets, he added, already had selling or buying on their minds when he had called. News of the market was inescapable, making it easier for him to swoop in.

"Cold calling is completely a numbers game," Sonna told Insider. "But numbers games work so much better when the market is hot as hell."

Tampa, Florida-based Julieniz Baez Fonseca joined the family business by becoming a broker herself in June 2020.

She was told that getting her first listing as a seller's agent might take a few months. But Fonseca got her first listing in two weeks — and sold it just three weeks after that.

"I've heard of agents who haven't gotten their first deal in a year or so in past times," Fonseca, now 22, told Insider.

A cooler market offers rookie agents a moment to stand out

What goes up must come down. Few experts expect a 2008-like crash, but the housing market has shown signs of downshifting from its fever pitch.

In times of slower market growth, agents exit the industry due to increased competition or overall loss of income. From December 2007 to December 2008, during the onset of the 2008 housing crisis, the National Association of Realtors said it lost 140,000 agents.

Some Gen Z agents, however, already anticipate the herd thinning and see it as the time to prove their mettle.

"Everybody that was doing this part-time, or they just thought this was easy money, they're going to quit, they're going to give up," Spears said.

"We're going into the season that separates the boys from the men," Sonna, who is preparing to compete for fewer listings by leaning into his social-media presence, said.

He considers his online audience — namely, his 15,000 followers on TikTok — as a source of potential buyers and sellers who may trust him more when they see how many people follow him.

"Historically when the markets do well, more people want to give real estate a try," Lawrence Yun, the chief economist of the National Association of Realtors, said.

An additional 170,000 agents joined the association's ranks between July 2020 and July 2022, bringing membership to an all-time high of over 1.58 million brokers nationwide. Yun said the surge even beat the association's own expectations for the period.

T ake the 20-year-old Nimel Sonna, who goes by Tre and started working as an agent in Seattle in August 2020. Sonna was working for a moving company when he admired a client's house. Sonna asked the owner what he did for a living, and he answered that he was a real-estate agent.

Sonna said he feels lucky he jumped into what he called the pandemic-housing "heat wave" because it aligned with his main method of signing clients: cold calling. Early on, he got in the habit of dialing strangers to find homeowners on the fence about selling to represent or people struggling with their searches for properties to buy.

Sonna said three of his first six deals were the results of cold calls. Many of his targets, he added, already had selling or buying on their minds when he had called. News of the market was inescapable, making it easier for him to swoop in.

"Cold calling is completely a numbers game," Sonna told Insider. "But numbers games work so much better when the market is hot as hell."

What goes up must come down. Few experts expect a 2008-like crash, but the housing market has shown signs of downshifting from its fever pitch.

In times of slower market growth, agents exit the industry due to increased competition or overall loss of income. From December 2007 to December 2008, during the onset of the 2008 housing crisis, the National Association of Realtors said it lost 140,000 agents.

Some Gen Z agents, however, already anticipate the herd thinning and see it as the time to prove their mettle.

" Everybody that was doing this part-time, or they just thought this was easy money, they're going to quit, they're going to give up," Spears said.

"We're going into the season that separates the boys from the men," Sonna, who is preparing to compete for fewer listings by leaning into his social-media presence, said.

He considers his online audience — namely, his 15,000 followers on TikTok — as a source of potential buyers and sellers who may trust him more when they see how many people follow him.


Keep reading on Business Insider

New study shows the impact homeownership tenure has on the real estate industry.

Homeownership tenure: The long view for brokers

New study shows the impact homeownership tenure has on the real estate industry.

When it comes to the real estate business, it’s very easy to focus on the short-term, including prices, inventory, pending and actual sales. But, when you run a brokerage, it’s essential to look at the long-term because, as leaders, we need to be out in front of potential changes to make the best decisions to ensure the growth of our businesses.

This is where macro trends come into play – pieces of the bigger picture that can influence our business. For example, one of the macro trends that is not tracked closely that I’ve been paying attention to is homeownership tenure, specifically how long a homeowner stays in their home before entering the market again.

If you asked real estate professionals their thoughts on the average number of years an owner stays in their home, they’d probably say about seven or eight years. But, according to new reports from the National Association of Realtors (NAR), recent homebuyers intend to remain in their homes almost twice that. In the 2020 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers Report, people who have recently bought a home intend to stay for at least a median of 15 years.

This trend has been visible over recent years and has only become more pronounced as Baby Boomers redefine aging. Remember, the U.S. Census reports that those 65+ have the largest percentage of homeownership at 79.6%, followed by those 55-64 (75.4%); these groups want to stay put.

If you think inventory is an issue now, what happens downstream when fewer people put their homes on the market? And what happens if today’s inventory influencers – builders and investors – are still contributing to a low inventory environment?  It’s a question that was recently posed to ERA® Real Estate brokers across the country. Their answers reflect an astute combination of short-term activity and long-term positioning.

We are excited to share their insights, reactions and responses in a new report: Homeownership Tenure and its Impact on the Industry. The report speaks to the need for continuous adaptation at every level of the business.

Homeownership is not going away, and real estate brokerages and sales professionals remain the conduit for most consumers.

Macro trends in real estate are where the rubber meets the road. Knowing when and how to adapt to these trends is a great competitive advantage, one that successful brokers across the country will continue to leverage no matter the market conditions.

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