Number of Agents Grows In Northwest Arkansas

When it comes to real estate agents, Northwest Arkansas is the fastest growing area in the state.

Washington and Madison counties and the city of Siloam Springs, which comprise the Metro Area Board of Realtors, saw a 36.6 percent increase in the number of real estate agents last year, from 904 to 1,235, according to statistics provided by Ethan Nobles, director of media relations for the Arkansas Realtors Association. That compares with a 14.4 percent increase statewide.

In Benton County, the number of agents jumped 21.6 percent in Bentonville/Bella Vista and 28.5 percent in Rogers. (see chart)

But Nobles cautioned comparing Northwest Arkansas to central Arkansas because the Little Rock Realtors Association doesn’t include all of Pulaski County.

“It’s not really comparing apples to apples or oranges to oranges,” Nobles said, but he pointed out, “One thing that is telling is that Benton County is right on par with Pulaski County [in total number of agents]. Ten years ago, no one would have believed that. That to me is significant.”

With its 1,235 registered real estate agents, the Metro Area Board of Realtors is the second largest in the state next to the Little Rock Realtors Association. In 2005, the LRRA had 1,265 registered agents, which is an increase of 6.8 percent from 1,179 in 2004.

Other breakdowns from the Northwest Arkansas area included: Bentonville-Bella Vista Board of Realtors, which grew from 134 in 2004 to 163 in 2005, and the Rogers Board of Realtors, which expanded from 738 in 2004 to 948 in 2005.

Members of the local realtor groups confirmed Nobles’ numbers with two of the groups experiencing tremendous growth.

Alicia Demarest, president of the Metro Area Board of Realtors, said her group has been “adding 40 to 50 plus agents a month. I made a joke at one of our monthly meetings: had really slowed down and there were only 54 [agents added for the month].”

“We are probably adding 30 or 40 per month,” said Tom Rasmussen, president of the Rogers Board of Realtors.

And the only one of the three area realtor groups that did not seem to be gaining as noticeably was the Bentonville-Bella Vista Board of Realtors.

“We seem to gain five and lose three” per month, association executive Marilyn Sauder said, adding that the number of realtors in her association is about 140 right now.

“We’re down about 10 from last year,” she said. “I don’t know what the difference is. Some get into the business and see another board they would like to go to. Others get in and find that it’s not for them. It’s not as easy as it looks.”

Agent Education

With an increased demand for housing and agents, agent education is a top priority.

Barry Cooksey, owner/broker of Re/Max Real Estate Results, said agents must go through a 60-hour pre-licensure course and an 18-hour post-licensure course.

“Obviously, it trains them as far as moral, legal and ethical obligations,” Cooksey said, but he added that there is more to the job than just what one gets in the courses. Cooksey said it is hard for agents to learn “the art of marketing,” as he termed it, through merely attending these courses. To help agents learn the art of marketing, more must be done, he said.

And Re/Max Real Estate Results does just that, implementing a mentoring program.

“In our company, we have post-licensure-orientation classes where we put the new agent with a highly-qualified broker for their first six transactions,” Cooksey said.

Working with a real estate veteran helps the newer agent become acquainted with the art of marketing real estate.

Cooksey also said his company has weekly training sessions for all agents, not just for the new ones.

“We educate our agents to be on top and make sure they have all the tools they need,” he said.

Cooksey said education can lead to higher success rates. He said 80 percent of agents are out of the business by their second year, but more than 85 percent of Re/Max agents come back for a second year.

While the real estate business can be competitive and difficult, Cooksey said, it is still a worthwhile endeavor where money can be made.

“If it were easy, then everybody would be doing it,” Cooksey said, adding that desire to be a real estate agent is a must if one is to be successful.

One beginning agent at Re/Max made more than $200,000 in a year, and other recent beginners pulled in around $70,000, he said. Cooksey speculated that it is possible for someone to rake in more than $500,000 in the first year.

Larry Kelly of Larry Kelly and Associates Realty echoed many of Cooksey’s opinions.

Kelly said the real estate community recognizes the necessity to continually educate agents and is addressing the educational needs of agents through both state and national entities.

Kelly, formerly of Houston, said Arkansas “hasn’t been as blessed as in Texas. But we are getting there,” in terms of agent education.

“We work really hard in providing educational opportunities,” Kelly said, noting that the GRI (Graduate Realtor Institute) and the CRS (Certified Residential Specialist) are two programs to further assist agents in educational issues. Agents are required to take an ethics course every four years, which Kelly said “helps to raise the professionalism.”

As far as the future of Northwest Arkansas, Cooksey and Kelly saw no immediate end to the growth. Cooksey said Re/Max has seen a dramatic increase in business in just the first three months of 2006.

“Benton County grew about 10,000 [in population] last year, and Washington County a little over 6,000,” Kelly said. He added that there are “many components to support growth,” namely jobs.

But growth brings about problems that will need to be addressed by Northwest Arkansas. One complaint about the area is the lack of housing in some price ranges and the overabundance of housing in other price ranges.

Cooksey and Kelly agreed that there are some price ranges that are overstocked and some that are undersupplied. But Kelly did not seem to think that this is a long-term problem or something that cannot be overcome. Rather he said this is a natural cycle that a lot of areas go through when growing. Confident that adjustments will be made in the housing market, Kelly predicted that housing prices should balance out over time to reflect the buying needs of communities.

• For a look at real estate agents’ growth in Northwest Arkansas, click here.

• For a look at the largest real estate firms in Northwest Arkansas, click here.

(Tony Woodside of Fayetteville is a freelance writer.)