43% of Real Estate Agents Do Less Than 10 Transactions a Year and More Interesting Agent Statistics

Everyone is still talking about Redfin on 60 minutes, with many agents claiming how much more professional and experience a the "traditional agent" is.... really?

The NAR just released the 2007 REALTOR Technology Survey which has some interesting points but the most telling is probably this from page 7.

- 47% of agents did less than 10 transactions "sides" last year.
- 28% did less than 20 transactions last year.

So lets see, 75% of the NAR members who responded to the survey did less than 1.6 transactions a month with a majority of these doing less than one transaction per month.

This clearly represents the majority of real estate agents, the same ones who claim that they are significantly more professional and experienced than the redfin agents. I fairly certain that the redfin agent do more than 1.6 transactions a month. More transactions... equals more experience at handling problems.

Another interesting statistic was from page 20. If you read agent blogs you will hear that all agents say they deliver great service which gets them referral business but yet the report indicates the following:

- 43% of agents reported that less than 25% of their business came from referrals.

Again, if traditional agents do such a great job and deliver the exceptional service that most seem to claim, why are they only getting 25% referral business?

How about this. According to the 2006 the NAR reported that 71% of buyers searched for homes on the internet but look at these statistics from the report:

- 78% agents advertised on REALTOR.com
- 75% advertised on the local MLS - isn't that why you use / pay the agent?
Another common argument from agents is the amount of documents the agents need to review to close a transaction but on page: 40 of the report.

- 75% reported that there is less than 20 documents needed.

Thats not a whole lot of documents or work. In California, the purchase contract alone is 10 pages. Not a whole lot of time needed to sign and review 20 documents.

This is from page 45 of the report.

- Only 43% of agents enter and manage transaction information.
What kind of work are the agents actually doing?

With real statistics like this, consumers will really begin to question the value proposition of their agents and the cost of their services. This is the reason we created our real estate agent hourly rate calculator.

We also feel that due to information like this the adoption rate from the general public to sell FSBO or use a flat-fee MLS, or discount real estate model like redfin, Coldwell Banker blue edge or Century 21 clickit will only continue to raise from the 29% market share currently reported by the 2006 NAR Buyers & Sellers Report.

Download the 2007 NAR REALTORS & Technology Report.

REALTORS Actually Losing Ground to FSBO and Alternative Real Estate Models

The NAR is often quoted as stating the FSBO's are going down and losing market share but the reality, is that they (we) are really gaining a huge market share.

Don't believe me?

I know many (REALTORS) will quote the 2006 National Association of REALTORS (NAR) Home Buyer and Seller Survey there is a downtrend in For Sale by Owner transactions but you must actually read the report to quote it properly.

Here are the favorite facts of the NAR report:

"We find that the level of for-sale-by-owners is on a sustained decline and is now at a record low..."

- 12% of real estate transactions were FSBO in 2006 (down 1% from previous year)

- 13% in 2005.

- The record high was 20% in 1987

- the cyclical peak of 18% in 1997.

What interesting about the NAR and the report is that unless your purchase it for $125 to read the entire report this important facts are left out. Unfortunately I cannot post the entire report I purchased for you to read as the NAR would come after me but here are these important additional facts:

- 12% sellers successfully completed FSBO transactions - (proudly made public)

- 8% sellers successfully used minimal "MLS only" listing (this is really just a FSBO who paid $300 to get it on the MLS) - not shown in press release.

- 9% of sellers used a "limited service agent" i.e. alternative, discount, ala carte... call it what you want, it's not a traditional agent and not a traditional commission. - not shown in press release.

So when you do the math, that is 29% of the estimated 6,180,000 real estate transactions where NOT completed by a full service 6% agent.

Lets see...

- 29% of 6,180,000 is 1,792,200 transactions.

Now to me that seems like a SIGNIFICANT increase alternative / fsbo real estate transactions from the often quoted 20% high of 1987 when only a total of 3,526,000 transactions were done.

- 20% "all time high" of 3,526,000 is 705,200 "FSBO / alternative" transactions.

Maybe it's just me but 1 million MORE transactions seem like an increase?