This time of year is when some Real Estate Brokerages, perhaps fewer and fewer, take out an ad in the local newspaper to extend greetings. I’m not going to get into the merits of newspaper advertising, although it is well known that they have a depleting readership.
What I found interesting was comparing some seasonal ads for 2009 and 2010. This is all very unscientific of course, but it does help to illustrate a point.
There were only two local brokerages I came across doing the seasonal newspaper ads year over year and this is how they stacked up.
Brokerage #1 had a base of 33 REALTORS® in 2009, and by 2010, 10 had left and 8 had joined them. So 23 REALTORS® had been in the seasonal ads both years.
This meant that 30 percent of the REALTORS® from 2009 were now gone, and 6 percent hadn’t been replaced in the year.
Brokerage #2 had a base of 81 RELATORS® in 2009, and by 2010, 18 had left and 18 had joined them. So 63 of the 81 REALTORS® had been in the ads both years.
In one year, 22 percent of the REALTORS® had been replaced in brokerage #2.
The main point is that there is a big turnover in the real estate industry.
There are about 16,000 REALTORS® in the Province of British Columbia, and there has been about the same number of new REALTORS® licensed in the past 5 years but the total has remained fairly constant.
The total turnover of REALTORS® in BC for a 5 year period is darn close to 100 percent, and I believe that this turnover is going to get higher as we move forward.
Take your pick; a piece of the pie, or turnover?
Generally speaking, many of the more tenured REALTORS® seem to want to go to the same seminars with the same speakers and continue doing business the way they always have, and they’re all competing for the same diminishing piece of the traditional clientele pie.
The Gen “X” & “Y” are where the majority of business is today, and becoming even bigger markets every year. These markets are where the new REALTOR® might want to focus on getting established, and probably where many other REALTORS® will need to shift.
What are your thoughts?
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