Realtors Optimistic About 2010 Market

If there was one word in residential real estate for late 2009 and early 2010, it was “consolidation.”

Four of the area’s big firms are now two. The Griffin Company Realtors of Springdale and Weichert Realtors – Clark Long & Associates, merged in December to create Weichert Realtors – The Griffin Company. And in February, Coldwell Banker Faucette Real Estate of Fayetteville and Harris McHaney Realtors of Rogers merged to create Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette.

The first deal merged the market’s eighth and tenth largest firms (as of 2008) into what is now the market’s No. 5 firm in terms of sales volume, a combined $141.63 million. The firms’ 2008 volume was combined for year-over-year comparison for the annual list of largest Real Estate Firms.

The Business Journal annually ranks real estate firms with sales volume greater than $5 million and Realtors and Realtor Teams who had more than $2 million in sales volume.  

Brandon Long, a co-owner and managing broker with Weichert Realtors – The Griffin Company’s Rogers office, said the merger was good for all the partners because it allows the company to give its agents more resources, cut back on overhead and, in the end, become a more profitable company.

The second merger combined two firms frequently among the top four in terms of sales volume. If volume for 2009 was combined, the newly created Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette would have sold $375.44 million, topping Lindsey & Associates’ volume. But the firms’ volume was kept separate because the merger occurred in calendar 2010.

Top Sellers

In all, the 19 largest firms in Benton and Washington counties reported a combined 419 million-dollar producing agents and 1,101 total agents during calendar 2009. Total residential sales volume for the firms was a combined $1.65 billion.

In 2008, 25 firms reported 401 million-dollar producers and 1,223 total agents. Total market sales volume for the reporting firms was $1.77 billion that year.

Four firms declined to participate in the request for information for the 2009 list and one, Exit Pinnacle Realty, closed. The firm had been No. 6 in 2008 with $110 million in sales volume. Many of its agents and their sales became part of Crye-Leike Realtors.

Of the 19 firms, the top firm was Lindsey & Associates with $340.33 million in 2009 sales volume, down just more than 2 percent from 2008.

In terms of productive agents, Re/Max Real Estate Results of Bentonville was tops, with average volume of $4.55 million per agent.

Two hundred and twenty-one Realtors had sales volume at $2 million or above. Those agents had total volume of $1.06 billion. A year-over-year comparison is impossible because about 80 agents that were on the 2008 list did not qualify for 2009 and many agents who were not on 2008’s list made it on to 2009’s.

The nature of the business and the fact that many firms operate offices in several cities make comparisons between Benton and Washington counties imprecise, but of the agents who reported, 88 did their primary business in Washington County and they sold a combined $4102.8 million.

One hundred thirty-three agents reported Benton County as their main turf and they had a combined $656.1 million in volume.

Of the top 10 Realtors, Carlene Clendenen, with the new Coldwell Banker Harris McHaney & Faucette firm, had the largest year-over-year percentage increase at more than 144 percent. Her volume went from $6.1 million in 2008 to nearly $15 million in 2009, landing her at No. 7.

Clendenen, who has been selling real estate in Northwest Arkansas for 23 years, attributed the dramatic swing to having a down year in 2008; 2009 was more typical of her sales volume, she said.

2009 was one of the most difficult years she’s ever had, she said, because it’s been harder to get things closed and because both buyers and sellers are not as happy as they were in years past.

But still, Clendenen had a good year with corporate relocations and first-time homebuyers, and she closed two big sales: one for $1.5 million and one for $1.35 million.

“I think 2010 is going to be better overall,” she said.

Anecdotal evidence suggests people are looking to buy and the market actually could use some new inventory.

Long said the first-time homebuyer tax credit has certainly provided a boost to sales and the market is in for a “rush” as both buyers and sellers prep to meet the April 30 deadline to make a deal.