The number of licensed real estate agents in Montana jumped 23 percent - to more than 4,000 - last year, according to the National Association of Realtors. Local and state real estate agent organizations have watched their memberships double in just the past five years.
“People move to where the money is,” said NAR spokesman Walter Molony, who covers industry trends, research studies and statistics for the organization of 1.3 million members.
Further, regional experts are predicting that Montana won't see the plateau in growth that's expected to hit much of the nation; the influx of new residents to the western part of the state, in particular, should keep real estate agents hopping for years to come.
However, upon closer examination the picture doesn't look as rosy for Realtors as it might first appear, Molony said. There has not, for instance, been a corresponding increase in the average number of transactions per Realtor.
“You look at the number of people in the business - that's pretty competitive,” he said.
In fact, the number of members with the Montana Association of Realtors jumped from just under 2,000 six years ago to more than 4,600 this year.
Newcomers to the business, in particular, shouldn't expect to make much money at first. The real estate business is largely driven by personal referrals, so it can take years to build up a successful career, said Diane Beck, a Realtor with Prudential Montana Real Estate and former president of both the local and state Realtors' associations.
“Real estate is a relatively easy profession to get into, because our state licensing laws only require 60 hours of education to get a license,” said Beck, who has worked as a Realtor in Montana for 15 years. “It's also easy to get out of. The rate of success in our industry is about 20 percent - so only 20 percent of the real estate agents who get into it end up staying with it. ... The majority of them don't make it two years.”
A lot of people breaking into real estate these days are doing it as a side job, she added. Many hold down part-time or even full-time jobs in addition to their work as agents.
Judy Wahlberg, president of the Missoula Organization of Realtors and a licensed Realtor since 1978, has noticed a sharp increase in the number of new real estate agents in their 20s in just the last two or three years. Until recently, most of the organization's members were in their mid-50s, she said.
The Missoula Realtors' organization has seen its membership jump from 385 members a decade ago to 746 this year. Further, the number of participants in its Multiple Listing Service has climbed from about 440 to more than 1,100 in the same period.
The younger generation of Realtors - and customers - tends to be more technology-savvy, and they are increasingly pushing the real estate business online, Wahlberg said. Further, the Internet is expanding the reach of individual agents. When she started out 30 years ago, it was a much more localized operation.
“You ventured out of the Lolo area back then and you were considered very daring,” she said.
These days, she's not surprised if she gets a call from buyers in Florida who have been researching properties in Plains.
The technological know-how of the younger generation and the solid reputations built up by the older generation lend themselves to a natural pairing, and that's why there's been such a noticeable increase in the number of Realtor “teams,” Wahlberg said.
Often it's family members who choose to go into business together - which certainly doesn't hurt in the family-centric world of residential real estate, said Wahlberg, who teams with her son, Brint.
“I can tell you I get business because we're a mother-son team,” she said.
More than a half-million real estate agents in the United States have their own Web sites, said the NAR's Molony, and more than 75 percent of home buyers educate themselves before they ever talk to an agent.
Those who can't spare the time to do their own research tend to gravitate toward full-service brokers, but as consumers have become more informed they've opted to take on much of the work of buying and selling themselves, he said.
This has resulted in the proliferation of discount agencies, which offer limited services on a fee-per-service basis, he said.
Also, hot housing markets tend to push commission rates lower, Molony said.
“There's more downward pressure (on commissions) in the hot housing markets,” he explained. “Five percent of a million dollars is a lot more than 5 percent of $100,000.”
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