The National Association of Realtors has seen a decline in membership even though, with state and local memberships, they still total over 1 million members. Colorado real estate associations, overall, saw a decline of more than 8 percent in membership by the end of 2010. With the greatest housing downturn since the Great Depression, Realtor associations need to do more. They can take advantage of this time to adjust their budgets and focus on better ways to serve their membership.

The National Association of Realtors is doing their part by hiring Jerry Matthews, a real estate consultant, who was an executive with the Florida and Illinois Realtor associations for 27 years. Matthews has been encouraging real estate associations for years to focus on serving the trade association's "true customer": the broker-owner.  said a story by Matt Carter of Inman News,

"Matthews has been working with NAR on two initiatives aimed at helping associations stay relevant:

One program, dubbed "Transform," helps Realtor associations analyze current practices with an eye to becoming more efficient and valuable to their members.

The second program, "Unify," makes Matthews available to associations that have decided to merge, or are considering such a move." stated the article.

NAR is using Matthews as their "main tool" to help local associations explore opportunities for merging together for a combined strong voice. "I only work with the willing. I'm the disinterested third party -- I am here to help you go where you want to go, but if you don't want to go there, that's fine with me." said Matthews.

"I funded Jerry Matthews to do three projects, and I bet those will go very well," said Dale Stinton, CEO of the NAR. "If they do, I think I'll fund some more. He does it in a very productive way."

"In his role as the Unify program facilitator, Matthews has helped get the ball rolling in merger talks involving a total of seven Realtor associations now under way in two markets: Denver and western North Carolina." stated the article.

Denver Board of Realtors president, Mark Trenka said that they tried merger talks a couple of years ago but they didn't work out. This time, Matthews proved to be invaluable, facilitating during the latest merger talks. "Having access to (the Unify program) through NAR helped us get started on the process." said Trenka.

"Part of the incentive to consolidate is to lower costs by achieving greater efficiencies and economies of scale," Matthews said. Associations are looking at this as an opportunity to become bigger and better. 

"It mirrors what's going on in the brokerage community, with companies looking to take advantage of the down cycle to look at acquisitions and make marketing adjustments and agreements." he added.

"Smart Realtor associations are shifting their product mix to address the realities of the market," stated Matthews. Those that don't are perceived as providing less value to members."  

Read the full story at InmanNews.

photo credit: dargs

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Posted in MBI Advantages, Real Estate Market Conditions, Headlines

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