3 (or less) Transactions per Realtor

800,000 Part-Time Realtors

According to the National Association of Realtors, 80% of Realtors handled 3 or fewer transactions last year.

That prompts the following observations, in no particular order:

--There are still too many Realtors out there (something like one million-plus).
--A core group of Realtors (the 20%) are becoming increasingly dominant.
--The clients of so-called part-time Realtors aren't being served very well (you don't stay sharp doing 3 -- or fewer! -- deals a year. Nor do you have the money or incentive to pop for things like Web sites, custom marketing, etc.)
--Those 800,000 Realtors (80% times 1 million) must be doing other things to pay the bills -- or be with someone who is!

P.S.: On a related note (kind of), just got the news that I'm a Super Realtor for the third year in a row! (Mpls St. Paul Magazine and Twin Cities Business Magazine select what they say are the top 2% of local Realtors annually. Who am I to argue?)

Once a Super Realtor . . .

Always a Super Realtor

Before making Mpls - St. Paul Magazine's Super Realtor list, I'd never really paid much attention.

However, now that I'm a repeat pick, it does seem like there are a lot of, well, "us" out there. That's despite the fact that supposedly less than 2% of Minnesota's Realtors are chosen annually.

The explanation?

It turns out that the Super Realtor decal that Realtors can put on their marketing materials -- for a fee, of course -- contains an embedded calendar date. A very small, embedded calendar date.

I was made aware of that recently by another "Super Realtor" whose current business cards contain the decal . . . from 2005. I had to look at the card three times, squinting closely, before I could (just barely) make out the "2005."

I promised I wouldn't divulge his identity.