Wednesday, 23rd of July 2008 at 04:00:01 PMOn Sunday, the Arizona Republic ran a story on the decline in membership of the Arizona Regional Multiple-Listing Service (ARMLS). Lots of people are watching the membership of ARMLS just because unlike other memberships, this one renews in the middle of the year instead of the beginning. If we were in January, we would see an article about the declining membership of the National Association of Realtors. With the current state of the market, many agents are taking a long hard look at expenses and opting to return to traditional jobs for stability.
The decline in the membership of ARMLS has probably less to do with the current price increase of membership and more to do with the state of the market. To put it another way. My cellular phone bill is roughly $150 a month. I consider my cell phone a critical part of my business. AT&T knows if I am without service for more than a couple of minutes. ARMLS, which accounts for more than 80% of home sales by a Realtor, probably the best marketing tool we have, costs $22 month, up from $13 a month. Okay, so percentage wise, it is a bit of a jump, but it is a critical part of my business and if service is interrupted, yea, ARMLS would know about it pretty quick.
I also look at the fact that the additional $9 is going toward an improved MLS, we’re switching to FlexMLS. This is a company that is an example of proactive. I’ve been posting about the beta testing that I have done on their service, and everyone single time I have mentioned the slightest problem, I see comments from them addressing it. I don’t have to call them or open an issue, they monitor their system and they monitor the web for both good and bad. They celebrate the good and address the bad.
So, unless someone would like to find those agents that are not renewing their membership and taking a survey of why they are not. Logically, it would appear that the vast majority of them are leaving the field as the primary source of income. And if we are losing agents because of the $9 increase, chances are, you wouldn’t want to work with them anyway.
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