President's Note: Empower Yourself for Success

A core goal set by the 2017 National Association of REALTORS® Leadership Team is to help REALTORS® better help themselves. We are a multifaceted organization providing a robust litany of resources and services, covering everything from advocacy to technology to education, to support membership and enhance your prosperity.  Throughout the year, association leadership, staff, and volunteers have worked diligently to grow our member resources to ensure you have access to the tools REALTORS® need to meet the needs of 21st century consumers.

The acceleration of change within our industry has been monumental over the last decade. Technology is in a constant state of revolution and it alters the way we do business.  In this age of digital information, we must continue to adapt our business practices and our value propositions. We must step up our game to serve a society of knowledge-based consumers, and to ensure REALTORS® remain the authority.

NAR’s Research Division has been busy laboring towards this goal of helping REALTORS® help themselves.  Commercial members have noted they find value in our research because they are able to see how changes in their markets, aggregated nationally, compare with broader trends. A large percentage of REALTORS® are active in “small cap” commercial markets, which tend to be obscured by or absent from many third-party data aggregators. NAR’s research is able to shine a spotlight on these smaller markets, providing you, and our industry, with insights into Main Street, in addition to the trends on Wall Street.

As a result, NAR has established a reputation for producing exceptional research of the commercial real estate market. Over the years, REALTORS® have benefited from publications such as our Commercial Real Estate Outlook, Commercial Real Estate Lending Trends, and Commercial Real Estate Market Trends. This year, we are pleased to share three new commercial reports aimed at further empowering NAR’s commercial members. 

The first is the Swanepoel T3 Group’s Commercial Real Estate ALERT, released in May of 2017. Commissioned by NAR, and akin to the DANGER Report, the ALERT Report is a comprehensive publication that examines emerging risks and opportunities in the commercial real estate industry. The report synthesizes information from broad industry research sources along with industry leaders and REALTORS®, covering a range of topics from capital markets and crowdfunding, to technology, e-commerce, sustainability and regulations.

The second commercial report new in 2017 is Commercial Real Estate International Business Trends, an annual report focused on REALTORS® experiences with international investments. More and more REALTORS® are working with global clients, making this an indispensable resource on investment traits, sources of capital by global region and country, leasing trends for international clients, as well as appraisals.

Finally, the third report is the quarterly Business Creation Index. Through a focused monthly survey of commercial members, NAR Research is able to monitor local small business conditions and provide insight into business openings and closings by industry, population density, and sub-region.

I encourage you to visit nar.realtor/commercial to access these reports, as well as the entire collection of NAR commercial research and a wide variety of other resources designed to help you remain at the front of our industry. Even the most seasoned practitioner can benefit from the research and resources made available through your REALTOR® affiliation. 

NAR’s commitment to every business segment of our membership is unwavering. By helping REALTORS® help themselves, we make strides to ensure you remain the authority of our industry.  Working together, we can safeguard our livelihood, and secure our profession for future generations of REALTORS®.