Unique S.F. market may insulate Realtors from change
Realtors around the country are taking a wait and see approach to consequences from recent settlement agreements in a Kansas City courtroom between the National Association of Realtors and Missouri homeowners who alleged brokers conspired to set sales commissions.
Realtor leadership from Santa Fe and New Mexico recently attended regional meetings on the subject and are soon traveling to Washington, D.C., for national meetings. Santa Fe is well represented by 2024 Santa Fe Association of Realtors President Joshua Maes and Santa Fe Realtors Coleen Dearing and Lois Sury, president and first vice president of the state association.
Some pundits speculate the hardest hit will be brokers specializing in buyer’s representation, since there may be no guarantee of sellers paying commissions to a buyer’s agent, as they historically have done.
Maybe, but Santa Fe could buck that assumption.
Not because local brokers will continue to “collude” (they never technically have), but because it’s a market with lots of out-of-town buyers with no idea how quirky things can be in Santa Fe. Even savvy buyers in “back home” markets soon come to realize the importance of representation in Santa Fe transactions.
When virtually every home in Santa Fe is basically a collection of brown cubes stuck together, it’s hard to know which brown cubes in which neighborhood are best for a distant buyer. With green building flourishing and evolving in Santa Fe for 25 years, brokers who know what that means and how to sell it will always be in demand.
The National Association of Realtors website lists more than 25 designations and certifications Realtors can earn through continuing education. Each has its own logo, and most require annual dues to keep the designations. Not surprisingly, if you Google a pro, you see 10 logos representing 10 different fields of expertise.
Somewhat shocking is how many Santa Fe Realtors, including those who are well-known and successful like Dearing, have no designations or certifications following their names.
According to Maes, that’s likely to change.
One designation that is sure to pique the interest of brokers is the Accredited Buyers Representative. The national association recognizes that interest and recently began offering the course for free. That’s good, since a search for ABR Realtors in Santa Fe’s zip codes shows only 20 out of 400 SFAR brokers with the designation, including a handful from Albuquerque offices. Acronyms following names of some brokers can be mind-numbingly opaque for average consumers. Savvy Realtors would do well to spell out what all those letters mean and what was learned from the courses.
One of the most popular is a designation created by Santa Fe Realtors in 2019 after four years of curriculum development called a Santa Fe Specialist. It involves 30 hours of training and a test. Subjects covered are art, culture, history, architecture, land use policy, city and county regulations, construction and green building techniques, property title, water and mineral rights and liquid waste disposal. Sixty-three brokers have earned that designation, but it should be basic for all 400.
Other designations for differentiating oneself from peers for discerning buyers would be the Resort and Second-Home Property Specialist, Senior Real Estate Specialist, Luxury Home Certification, and the e-Pro and Green designations.
Ultimately a broker’s most important skill is sales. First, selling themselves to potential clients, and second, selling the final deal to the client. Having strings of letters following one’s name could help with the first, but the education is bound to help with the second.