Should NAR Rank Real Estate Agents?

All holy heck broke loose recently over the National Association of REALTORS endorsing an AgentMatch ranking system, which matches visitors to its website with real estate agents who belong to NAR. It’s a way to rank real estate agents. There has been a lot of yelling and screaming about it. The main problem is a good portion of agents would receive no leads. By a good portion, I’m talking about 90 to 95% of all real estate agents.

These are agents who also pay dues to be a member of the trade association, NAR. A trade association which allegedly believes some of its members deserve more recognition than others. Never before, really, has an agent’s production been made public knowledge. It’s like taking the curtain off income and letting everybody know exactly how much real estate agents make. Some of us make millions and some of us make thousands. Nobody in either camp really want this information to be public knowledge because, quite frankly, except for the IRS, it’s nobody’s business.

Some of the ranking criterium will depend on income (number of homes sold) but it also shows ratios, which are often useless and market dependent. Further, the rankings reflect days on market for listings, as though that has something to do with the real estate agent’s performance. We are not magicians. We cannot waive days on market nor decrease days on market. Anybody who has ever had to interview a real estate agent realizes that.

But overall, it basically says a consumer should chose a top-producing agent. You would think that would delight this Sacramento real estate agent because I rank fairly high and would receive a ton more leads, but it’s unfair. I’m sure NAR will find a way to make it fair such as by charging agents more money to be listed or some such, just like other real estate websites do now. If you see an agent showcased on Zillow or Trulia, trust me, the agent paid for that privilege.

In the end it comes down to how smart are consumers, how mad are real estate agents and how determined is NAR?