Realtors are taking a hit, too, and some are even leaving the
business.
Hollister – Homeowners aren’t the only ones hurt by the recent slump in the housing market. Realtors are taking a hit, too, and some are even leaving the business.
Maricela Ramirez, executive officer of the San Benito County Association of Realtors, said that when Realtors had to pay dues at the end of 2006, association membership fell from 282 to 243, a drop of around 14 percent. Association President Rick Pennington of Pennington Town and Country Realty said membership will likely fall again at the end of 2007.
“Real estate is not immune to the business cycle,” Pennington said. “We have ebbs and flows.”
Realtors are paid solely through commission, and both Pennington and association President-elect Renee Kunz, manager of Intero Real Estate, noted that there’s only so much money to go around.
In July, according to tracking firm REInfoLink, sales closed on 29 San Benito County homes at an average price of $555,005. Pennington said that although there’s a commission for both the buyer’s and the seller’s representatives – 3 percent is “common” in the current market – half the Realtors in local sales are from other counties. So local agents are still left with around 29 “sides” for 243 agents.
“That obviously limits your income,” Kunz said. “You can work an 80-hour work week and get zero dollars.”
Of course, many local agents are also selling homes outside San Benito County, Kunz said. And the membership numbers might also hide a trend of Realtors taking second jobs to supplement their incomes, Pennington added.
None of the agents at Intero’s Hollister office have called it quits yet, Kunz said.
Neither has Doug Flora, an agent with Coldwell Banker. Flora said he became an agent five years ago, and he acknowledged that the local housing market used to be much stronger.
“The market was better everywhere,” he said.
But Flora said he entered the business knowing he had to expect ups and downs.
“Nowadays, you have to work harder than ever before,” he said. “The things that worked before still work now, they just don’t work as quickly.”
San Benito County Realtors aren’t alone in their complaints. Brenda Huang, a spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Association of Realtors, said her association’s membership dropped by around 3 percent – from 8,669 to 8,390 – between July 2006 and July 2007.
The state Department of Real Estate is also issuing fewer licenses – 5,329 in June 2007, down from 6,051 in June 2006.
These cycles are normal, Pennington said. He argued that the housing market took an even harder hit in the early 1990s, when association numbers fell from an estimated 145 to 80.
“We still probably have another year of uncertainty,” he said.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or [email protected].
